Barbara G. Hennessy

Rhyming text and illustrations describe the familiar faces and objects of a day at school.

School Days

Sarah Sammis

With Sean now in elementary school and Harriet in preschool, both kids like stories about school. One of the books we started reading together at the start of school year is School Days by B. G. Hennessy and illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson. The story covers a day in the life of an elementary classroom.

There are lots of books about school. What sets this one apart is two fold: the simple and easy to read text by B.G Hennessy and the colorful and busy illustrations. Each page shows a different time in school day and a different activity.

The rhyming words stay on topic and help build vocabulary for preschoolers and reinforce high frequency words for beginning readers. Meanwhile Pearson's illustrations back up the text. Sean likes the pictures for confirmation that he's reading the words correctly and Harriet likes to point things out as her brother reads to her.

Finally there are little recurring details that the kids and I have been pondering over. For instance, there is a cat who shows up on the playground and is there for the remaining pages. Harriet and Sean have come up with a dozen different reasons for why the cat is there and what she's doing.

School Days

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