I LOVE MY TEACHER

Andreae and Dodd’s brush-headed toddler spreads the love wide.

This kid’s enthusiasm for school is catching for all who hear Andreae’s bouncy text. After recess, “We go back in to paint some more, / then stick our pictures on the door. / We make a lot of things as well. / This one’s my favorite! Can you tell?” The cardboard rocket the tot shares with a close buddy sports their faces gazing from the round windows. Those preparing to attend school for the first time will appreciate this look at a typical classroom day, and their parents will hope their own offsprings’ sendoffs are as easy: “Bye now, Mommy, you can go!” The teacher takes attendance, leads show and tell, teaches and praises, supervises play, sings a song, and helps the children—a diverse classroom, but the protagonist is white—get ready to go home. Still, this is not a perfect package. Though only one teacher, a woman with light-brown skin and hair, interacts with the child all day, the child initially refers to plural teachers (a white man stands in the doorway but is never seen again), and when readers are directed to look at the child’s name tag, it’s just a scribble. The purple duck some readers may remember from I Love You, Baby (2015) and earlier titles appears in just five of the 12 spreads, perhaps indicating increasing maturity.

A cheerily serviceable introduction to school routines.