TEACHING MRS. MUDDLE

It’s Kayla’s first day of kindergarten, and she’s riddled with anxiety about all the mistakes she’s sure she will make.

Then Kayla meets her teacher, Mrs. Muddle, and realizes that she might not be the only one learning the ropes. Mrs. Muddle passes out all the nametags to the wrong students, reads the morning storybook upside down, and confuses the library with the gym. Every time she makes a mistake, Kayla corrects her by figuring out the answer on her own. By the time the day is over, Kayla is confident in her ability to navigate her new school. Nelson’s narratorial voice is clear and charming, and the choice to illustrate Kayla as a dark-skinned girl of color is pleasing. The plot is not without its flaws, however. While Kayla claims to her mother after school that she made new friends, readers mostly see Kayla interacting with Mrs. Muddle, without the help of other students who might also be trying to correct their wayward teacher. Many of Kayla’s classmates appear also to be children of color. This would be a commendable gesture to diversity except that it transforms the book into the story of how a White teacher seems to decide that the best way to assuage the first-day jitters of a set of diverse kindergartners is to feign incompetence, a tactic that comes across as condescending.

Doesn’t quite make the grade.