Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
Mae's First Day of School
Kate Berube · 2022
74/100
👍 Worth It
Oregon Book Award-winning illustrator Kate Berube gives anxious kids a character who feels genuinely scared — and a teacher who climbs a tree to prove she was scared once too. Kirkus, Booklist, and SLJ all praised the emotional honesty. The arc is predictable, but for a child heading into kindergarten, predictable comfort is exactly the point.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety94
Substance / usefulness68
Craft & writing76
Originality56
Evidence & accuracy77
Hype vs delivers66
Age-fit80
👁 Human-eye gut-check75
Penny’s verdict74
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