jurgrace's Full Review: Joseph Slate - Miss Bindergarten Stays Home From K...
Last April, the Swine Flu (now known as H1N1) really did hit my daughter's kindergarten class. Luckily, there was only one confirmed case, but still there were fewer children showing up at class (including the teacher) each day for two weeks, and to give my daughter a better idea of what was going on, we read Miss Bindergarten Stays Home From Kindergarten, by Joseph Slate.
Miss Bindergarten starts to feel ill on Sunday morning and stays home from kindergarten on Monday. At school, the kids in her class are worried by her absence, but luckily they have Mr. Tusky, a very helpful substitute. The kids instantly decide to help him find his way around the classroom, but after lunch, poor Franny the frog moans, "My tummy hurts. I'm dizzy."
Then, "On Tuesday-- Miss Bindergarten and Franny stay home from kindergarten." As we progress through the week, the kids continue to help Mr. Tusky in class, as he guides them through the letters and get-well cards they make for Miss B., as other kids gradually get sicker and have to join Miss Bindergarten in staying home from kindergarten. By Friday, everyone is back to normal and poor Mr. Tusky has to stay in bed all weekend, as he has also caught the flu.
Like the rest of the books in the Miss Bindergarten series, Miss Bindergarten Stays Home From Kindergarten is a 40 page hardcover book with beautiful watercolor and gouache illustrations in rich, dark tones by Ashley Wolff. Miss Bindergarten is a border collie (who walks on her hind legs) and each of the students is an animal with an alliterate name (Adam Alligator, Ian Iguana and Patricia Pig are some of the students). Each two-page spread features scenes from the classroom with rhyming two to four line stanzas, with alternating pages giving us a scene of what's going on with the flu victims at home.
My three and six year-old girls like this book for a couple of reasons. First of all, they love getting another glimpse inside Miss Bindergarten's class. My (now) first grader also loves guessing correctly what the next day of the week is, and my three year-old likes the detail in the pictures.
This is where things could be a little negative for parents. While it's great that this book gives kids the idea that substitute teachers are nice and the kids should help them out (as opposed to putting rubber snakes on their seats), the 'at home' scenes could be considered glorifying staying home from school. Early on, we see a lot of eating soup in bed, but as the week progresses, Franny gets to watch t.v. and play Chutes and Ladders, while Raffy plays with his toy dinosaurs in bed. Yes, these are good activities when you have kids sick at home, but as the school year progresses, kids might get the idea that staying home would be a lot more fun. My three year old was sick this weekend, and kept telling me that I'm supposed to let her eat in bed now (okay, I thought that was cute, but other parents might not be so excited to hear it from their kids).
Despite the potential glorification of staying home from school, Miss Bindergarten Stays Home From Kindergarten is a great book to read with early grade-schoolers as we enter flu season. Not only does it help them to understand what's going on as more and more students don't show up at school, it reinforces the alphabet (the kids appear in alphabetical order) and days of the week, along with the idea that subs are nice (and can actually be fun).
At 609 words, this review qualifies as Lean-n-Mean. So far, Books is in the lead. Come join in the fun!
A playful take on a topic that all parents can relate togetting sick! The ever-lovable Miss Bindergarten is not feeling well. The flu strikes on Sunda...More at HotBookSale
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