Kindergarten Is Cool!

Marshall (Talia and the Very Yum Kippur) offers nervous kindergartners-to-be a breezy rundown of a typical day, writing in clipped rhyming couplets (“As you enter the door/ You see blocks on the floor/ Science stuff to explore,/ Spots for ‘Dress Up’ and ‘Store’ ”). Chatterton’s (There’s a Bison Bouncing on the Bed) digital graphics echo the upbeat mood of Marshall’s verse as he pictures a multicultural group of children singing during music time, skipping rope on the playground, eating lunch, and making friends with each other. The classroom guinea pig gets in on the fun, too, spending little time inside its cage—one of several Easter eggs tucked in to the scenes for eagle-eyed kids to point out. Some of the rhymes are slightly awkward, but generally it’s an encouraging vision of the opportunities kindergarten has to offer. Ages 4–6. [em]Author’s agent: Christa Heschke, McIntosh & Otis. Illustrator’s agency: Bright Agency. (June) [/em]