by Moe Zilla

Created on: August 07, 2010

This is a story about real children - though the story represents them with lively caricatures. There's a short girl with glasses named Shannon, and a black boy in a green sweater who smiles as the school's pet snake, Daisy, licks his nose with its tongue! Joe says the thing he'll miss most about going to school is "chocolate milk and pizza for lunch." But they're all feeling sad thinking about the last day of school.

"Even Daisy..."

Julie Danneberg is a schoolteacher, according to the book's jacket, and at first I wondered if she was describing her own experience. But it seems more like she's trying to imagine the way that students see her. In her story, a teacher named Miss Hartwell says she'll miss the students during summer vacation, and this inspires the students to buy her a present. So while they're discussing what the think a teacher would like, they're also remembering their fond times together.

"I'm going to miss seeing Mrs. Hartwell wear her safety goggles during science," says Jack (while giggling). Illustrator Judy Love contributes a sweet picture of the teacher, smiling hopefully with her bright blue eyes, as she puts on the safety goggles one last time.  "Just for fun," the text adds - which gives the picture a special poignancy. Reflected in the teacher's big safety glasses are the faces of all her smiling students.

It's really a story about friendship, and there's lots of drawings of the students talking together on the playground. Judy Love keeps the pictures colorful and funny, but there's a lot interaction between the kids, suggesting a real sense of community. They play on the monkey bars, ride the tire swing, and ride the school bus together.

It builds some interest in the book's ultimate question: what will the students give their teacher on the last day? The story-telling increase the tension, implying a countdown with phrases like "On the morning of the Thursday before the Friday that was the last day of school..." In the end, the students give the teacher an enormous poster with a rhyme they've written themselves, listing out all the things they've enjoyed during the year - and then identifying her as the one they'll miss most of all. But for all the sweetness in the story, the book ends with a funny joke that adds a happy ending - and a hint of realism.

There's a drawing (with sad grey-ish colors) showing the way students imagined their teachers on the last day of school - crying as all of their students ride away on a bus. Then there's a picture of poor Mrs. Hartwell, all alone at her desk, saying to the sanke, "It's just you and me, Daisy. I'm sure going to miss them this summer." But turn the to the book's last page, and there's a spectacular-two page spread showing all the teachers. They're dancing in a happy conga line, as Mrs. Hartwell shouts, "...but I can't wait for vacation!"

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