No More Pencils, No More Books, No More Teacher's Dirty Looks!

Transitions can be difficult for the toddlers and those in early elementary school age. Change is everywhere. As children advance from one grade to the next, they seek and test new identity, and new teachers and friends emerge or fade. Yet, it's also a time when kids need and look for sources of stability and continuity. Diane DeGroat covers these developmental dilemmas with perfect pitch in "No More Teachers, No More Books," the seventh in her "Gilbert and Friends" series. Youngsters will easily identify with the varied emotions of Mrs. Byrd's first grade graduating class of hedgehogs, raccoons, bunnies, ducks, and other smallish animals. The manifest conflict is Mrs. Byrd's (questionable) decision to give awards to her students, and her students wonder whether they'll get one. Ms. DeGroat knows that even at this young age, kids have a sense of who's good at what, and worries over whether they'll be looked over, especially in front of friends and family members: "Phillip is the best reader, for sure," Gilbert said. "Frank is good in math," Patty added...." "And you're the best speller, Patty," said Gilbert. "I know you'll get an award for that." Gilbert, however, hears Patty pause when she tries to tell Gilbert what he's best at, and, despite Lewis' reassurances that "everybody gets an award," Gilbert wonder if it's really true. While one wonder whether Mrs. Byrd (she's an adorable penguin, by the way) should know better than to foster this anxiety in her little animals, your kids may be aware of such social comparisons whether they are formalized as awards or not. DeGroat's acute sense of what kids feel and how they reveal these feelings is remarkable: Kids will identity with her characters, and sensitive adults will share her empathy. Mrs. Byrd strikes one as a teacher who balances a fairly hard line with large doses of love and a good sense of humor. Apparently, she had earlier confiscated some of Lewis' chewing gum, and, as the class goes through the ritual of cleaning u p their desks, tells him that he can have it back now. When Lewis says, "You can keep it to remember me by," Mrs. Byrd gives a fond retort, "I don't think I could ever forget you, Lewis!" She also give Frank the time-honored advice that he can dispel some of his stage fright by pretending that the audience, including his grandparents, are sitting in their underwear! The awards are to follow songs and poetry recitations. As one might expect, some kids perform as expected, while others falter in front of the audience, and with the prospect of awards looming before them. When the expected reading winner, Phillip, forgets his lines, Gilbert, in a natural and spontaneous action, starts reading for him (which prompts Phillip to remember the last line). By this time, it's becoming clear that Gilbert's award will not be strictly academic (pun intended). When Gilbert gets the "good friend award," he's quite surprised ("now he knew what he was good at"), and his