Ready, Set, School! - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 3—Rory, a young raccoon, is nervous about staying overnight with his cousins while his parents attend a gourmet garbage party. Despite his enormous trepidation at trying something new, he has a great time sliding in mud and staying up way past daylight. After this experience, Rory realizes that he is not so anxious about starting Remarkable Raccoon Suburban School, but his parents voice their own anxieties. Rory reminds them of the lesson he learned; most new things are scary until you give them a try. The details of the the creatures' home life, such as Rory's mother reminding him to rinse his apple cores and broken eggs three times, are clever. However, the story is overly long, the plot too loose, and Rory's responses and reactions are, at times, too adult. The full-page and inset illustrations of Rory and family in muted, nighttime colors include some very clever images, such as Rory's parents sharing a toast beside toppled garbage cans. However, the raccoons' eyes are so dark and beady that it can be hard to read the creatures' expressions. Stick with Kevin Henkes's Wemberly Worried (Greenwillow, 2000) or Amy Hest's Off to School, Baby Duck! (Candlewick, 1999) for titles that feature animals who are nervous about starting school.—Rachel G. Payne, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
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