Getting Ready for Kindergarten by Vera Ahiyya
ISBN: 0593809483
Genres: Emotions & Feelings, Realistic Fiction
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Source: MSL Book Review
Goodreads

A well done first experience picture book that will help prepare a child for a first school experience. Vera Ahiyya has taught Kindergarten and first grade for 16 years which is evident in how she approached this book from getting on the school bus to eating lunch in the cafeteria. The 5-year-old has big feelings throughout the day, both ups and downs, and she navigates them all. The unnamed girl has dark skin and her new friend wears a headscarf. The teacher has long dark curly hair and brown eyes, perhaps Hispanic, and the other children and adults vary in their depiction. Definitely a good choice for parents and their children who will be starting kindergarten as there is much fodder for discussion and reassurance. Great example for what this book is meant to be, but I would not call it great literature though. So I did not recommend it for Cream of the Crop. There is a “I’M READY FOR KINDERGARTEN” sign in the back of the book meant to be held for the first day of school photo.

Barb Rehmeyer, Liberty Library