As soon as she arrives at school, Kitty knows there's trouble. "Smiling
Miss Seabrooke should be here to meet me. But my teacher is missing and
NOT here to greet me." With no Miss Seabrooke, everyone should be sent
home, right? But no! Kitty and her classmates line up as usual and walk
into the school building. Kitty's worries build as she wonders how she
will get through the day without her teacher. What will she do when her
Thermos gets stuck or her jacket won't zip? Miss Seabrooke is the only
one who can fix these things. Or is she?
Author Lana Button perfectly captures the fears and uncertainties of a
kindergartner dealing with her first substitute teacher. She also models
a way to cope, as Kitty steps up to help the substitute --- a
"ginormously tall" giraffe named Mr. Omar --- and discovers that
sometimes change can be good. Button's playful and lively cadenced
rhyming text, together with Christine Battuz's friendly illustrations of
a full cast of animal characters at school, make this a terrific picture
book for story time. It provides an excellent lead-in to prepare a class
for their first substitute, or for a discussion about how it feels when
life doesn't go as expected. A celebration of self-discovery and
personal development, this book also makes a wonderful choice for
character education lessons on kindness, empathy and perseverance.
Educators will appreciate the heartfelt depiction of a young child's
warm feelings for her teachers.
