MY KINDERGARTEN (Booklist Editor's Choice. Books for Youth (Awards))
PreSchool-Grade 1–Emily and her classmates are back, and children follow them throughout their kindergarten year through charming vignettes and enchanting illustrations. Each oversized spread offers a learning experience, whether readers are singing number songs with Emily and Diane Duck, making Valentine cakes with Emily and her mother, or hearing about the voting process. " 'We vote,' says Grandpa,  'in order to try and make more good things than bad things happen in our world.'" Miss Cribbage inspires her students to learn about the world around them in innovative ways. For example, the class creates a "Museum of Things" where they put tiny treasures or waylaid pieces into boxes that they label as animal, vegetable, or mineral. The corresponding photographs of the items against a stark white background face humorous pictures of students dressed as an animal, mineral, or vegetable. The book is lighthearted and full of caring detail, warm expressions, and explosions of color. In addition to being about that wonderful first year of school,Kindergartenserves as a celebration of family and community, reminding readers that the school day extends far beyond the borders of the classroom walls. This is Wells at her best.–Lisa Gangemi Kropp, Middle Country Public Library, Centereach, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.