Great Reading: Bookmark It!

Volume 29, Number 4, April 2002

School Worries
Grades PreS-Grade 5

Ruth Cox

A fine, fine school. Sharon Creech.
HarperCollins, 2001. $15.89. 0-06-027737-8. Principal Keene loves school so much he has added weekends and holidays, but Tillie reminds him that some things are learned outside of school, like how to climb a tree.

Shrinking Violet. Cari Best.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2001. $16.00. 0-374-36882-1. Irwin’s taunts make Violet shrink until she “saves” him from being laughed at during the school play she is narrating as Lady Space, who “wishes to remain dark and mysterious.”

Russell’s secret. Johanna Hurwitz.
HarperCollins, 2001. $15.89. 0-688-17575-9. Russell doesn’t want to go to school. His mother allows him to stay home, but says he can only do the things his baby sister does, such as drink warm milk from a bottle and take a nap. By lunchtime Russell is ready to go to school.

Stop, drop, and roll. Margery Cuyler.
Simon & Schuster, 2001. $16.00. 0-689-84355-0. Jessica worries about Fire Prevention Week at school. Her worries have her tongue twisted into such a big knot she just can’t seem to say “stop, drop and roll” even though she has to demonstrate it at the school assembly.

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Ruth Cox is assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas. She can be reached at Cox@cl.uh.edu.