One Room School

Pringle (Dinosaurs!) takes a nostalgic trip back to 1944, his final year in attendance at a one-room schoolhouse in the Hopper Hills of Monroe County, N.Y. That year, School 14 boasted 18 children--from first to eighth grade--within its walls. Pringle's description of this setting and its leisurely day-to-day routine (the teacher ringing a handbell to call the students; a rare ride home in her Model A Ford) contrasts sharply with the loud bells, school buses and jammed hallways familiar to many children today. References to WWII throughout serve to heighten this sense of history (one illustration shows the children with--and one atop--a mountain of scrap metal they collected to make tanks and Liberty ships). Garrison's (Look at the Moon) collagraphs (collage-graphics) are framed like photographs of treasured times and add warmth to Pringle's somewhat dry, factual recounting of his memories. Reminiscent of children's drawings, the pictures consist of mostly neutral shades (buff, brown, muted greens), highlighted with dashes of gold, deep blue, red and purple. While children will find the gulf between their own experience and Pringle's wide (and may have trouble sticking with the slow pace of the text), they will also see timeless similarities in learning songs for holiday concerts, longing for recess and celebrating a ""snow day."" Author and illustrator notes are included. Ages 6-10. (Feb.)