Children's Books About School

Weekly Trip to the Library for Nannies and Au Pairs

In New Jersey, where we publish Be the Best Nanny Newsletter, we have just started the fall semester of school this week. But for those who started school in August these are still fun books to borrow from the library.

I Am Absolutely too Small for School
By Lauren Child
We love all Charlie and Lola books by Lauren Child! This book introduces children to Lola, the star of this picture book. Lola is sure she is "too absolutely small for school," but her older brother Charlie patiently convinces her otherwise by presenting a series of imaginative and funny reasons she needs to go to school. Not only is the story fun, but Child's mixed media illustrations are a delight, vibrant and highly entertaining.





First Day Jitters
By Julie Danneberg
This is an excellent book for the child who is worried about changing schools. It’s the first day of school and the main character, Sarah Jane Hartwell, does not want to go. She will be going to a new school and she is scared. This is a funny book, with a surprise ending that will cause the reader to laugh out loud and then go back and read the entire story again.






The New Girl… and Me
By Jacqui Robbins
Two girls named Shakeeta and Mia become friends when Shakeeta boasts that she has a pet iguana and Mia learns how to help Shakeeta "feel at home" even when she is in school. When narrator Mia's teacher asks the class to make Shakeeta, a new classmate, feel at home, "I ask Ms. Becky, `How can someone feel at home when she's at school?' The rest of the book explores this idea.




First Grade Stinks!
By Mary Ann Rodman
First Grade Stinks! is an entertaining picture book that can help to ease a child's transition from kindergarten to first grade. The book is about Haley and her first day in first grade. With unexpected sympathy and explanations from her first grade teacher about why so much is different from kindergarten, Haley stops thinking, "First grade stinks!" and begins to think, "First grade is great!"