David Goes to School

David Shannon has a gift for drawing exactly the child teachers are thinking of when they write classroom rules, and David Goes to School puts that child front and center from the first page. Running in halls, chewing gum, cutting in line — David does it all with an expression of pure enthusiasm that makes even the most rule-abiding reader feel a flicker of recognition. A starred Publishers Weekly review noted what teachers already know: this character is universal. The bold acrylic paintings carry the story even before a child can decode the minimal text. Two caveats: the formula of rule-break, correction, rule-break, correction does get repetitive, and older picture book readers will outpace it quickly. As a classroom tool for setting expectations with warmth, it is hard to beat.