I Don't Want To Go To School


After months upon months of uneventful journeys to day care, my son has all of a sudden started say how he "no likes school."  It's weird, because he obviously enjoys being there, but has a problem with the idea of going.  Maybe this book can help?                    

THREE PROS
*Showing kids it only takes one day to get used to school might not be 100% accurate, but serves as a positive white lie to diminish their fears
*As horrible as Stephanie Blake's artwork is (trust me you could do just as good if you were etching on bark by a failing campfire), it kind of works for this type of story
*Liked how the words were slightly smaller for the child's whisper

THREE CONS 
*The whole "no way" thing is a terrible habit to teach a kid who maybe doesn't know that phrase yet (like my guy)
*On the bed pages, is he scared of the dark or of school or both, can't quite figure this out
*Hey papa bunny -- why would learning the alphabet be a carrot for making Simon want to go to school 

ONE DAD'S OPINION
Here's the deal: that second pro is a total false positive.  With illustrations this bad and a $13 price tag, there's just no way IDWTGTS could land my Buy rating, regardless of how good the writing was.  As a result, we have to start with Borrow as the absolute max grade it could get -- and it's nowhere near perfect when you factor out the drawings.  So what we have here is a Donate that isn't quite rabbit hutch shreddable, but it's close.                                

Buy / Borrow / DONATE / Destroy


1 comment:

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