100 Things I Love About School- Happy New Year!

I love being back at school. We had sixth graders yesterday, but EVERYONE is back today! It's so exciting! Everything is clean and in place, there are new books up on display, and I get to spend a good portion of the day (when not dealing with ViewBoards, Chromebooks, or helping people did their classes) recommending books to people. It does NOT get any better than this. No new outfit, but I get to wear a dress, jacket, real shoes, and earrings instead of sweat pants. The school even smells good, like lemon cleaner and floor polish. 

Not sure when it became cool to hate school and want to retire, but after a long, hot summer of having to find things to accomplish every day, I am so happy to be back. I can only hope that my grandson will look forward to school, and reading books like the following can only help! 

Schwartz, Amy and Tolstikova, Dasha. 100 Things I Love About School

July 14, 2026 by Harry N. Abrams

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Early elementary school is such an exciting place, and this picture book captures the glory of morning meetings, storytimes, and gold stars. There are a lot of different activities, like building things, exercising, and using scissors and glue. There can be parachutes to play with, fantastic playgrounds, and lots of friends. There are even some snacks, musical instruments, and class plays. At the end of the year, there can be moving-up day, which means an opportunity for more adventures the following year. 

Told in fast-paced, free wheeling verse, this book is a triumphant list of all of the things that make school a much more enticing atmosphere than just staying home. While I'm just as glad that I work with older children (less leakage, which is not depicted in this tome!), the lure of doing things for the first time has an undeniable appeal, and the exuberance of young children comes through in the text. 

The illustrations have an early 1980s feel to them; they are rendered in graphite and watercolor, and have limited backgrounds, making the children and activities really stand out of the page. I'm not familiar with the late Ms. Schwartz's work, but she had been writing and illustrating for a long time. Tolstikova does a good job at paying homage to her style. 

As the back to school sales start up, this is a great book to read while arranging new crayons in scissors in a school box. Continue with Clapham and Shireen's The Tour at School, Brenner and Hill's And Then Comes School, and Olsen and Sonke's A Letter From Your Teacher on the First Day of School. You can even delve deep into history and embrace the plaid school bag with its hidden stuffed animal in Haywood's classic 1943 Back to School with Betsy.