My Teacher's Not Here!

March 1, 2018

PreS-Gr 1-A comforting and helpful story about just what to expect when your teacher is sick. Right away, the little cat knows something is amiss. Her teacher, Miss Seabrooke (a cozy looking chicken with happy round pink glasses) is not at school. She is even more startled by their substitute standing in Miss Seabrooke's spot. Mr. Omar (a tall giraffe with a deep voice), is very different from Miss Seabrooke and she is a bit scared and hesitant at first, but as the day goes by the young protagonist learns that she can manage without her teacher and even be a big help to Mr. Omar. The playtime images are fun and inviting, and textural overlays add depth to the hand-drawn and digital collage illustrations without cluttering the page. The classroom is filled with realistic and practical school details such as a handwashing station and a comfortable reading nook that can help acclimate younger readers to the things they might find in a school environment. The comical rhyming text perfectly captures the fear and hesitation of a day without the reassuring presence of a beloved teacher. VERDICT A practical and reassuring book for parents and caregivers to share with young children, especially when their established routines are disrupted. Recommended for purchase.-Laken Hottle, Providence Community Library

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018
A group of schoolchildren are apprehensive about spending a school day with a substitute teacher, but they manage to get through with help from one another.The narrator, a cat, arrives at school only to find that beloved Miss Seabrooke is gone for the day. But Miss Seabrooke left a comforting note on the whiteboard for the class, and it encourages the cat to seek help from her friends, to be kind to her classmates, and to give the substitute a chance. In general, Battuz's hand-drawn and digitally collaged illustrations are sweet. Miss Seabrooke is perfectly rendered as a capable hen caretaker. However, some illustrations may strike readers as odd. On multiple pages, readers see the substitute, a giraffe, only from the waist down even though he's often depicted in full on several other pages. Though it seems to be an attempt to show him from the students' perspective, it feels abrupt, especially with abundant white space or little background on those pages. The rhyming quatrains flow nicely in general, but the narrator's tendency to capitalize some is distracting. Some appear to be for emphasis, while others are not so easy to understand. Though school goes well for the cat, the book ends realistically, with an expression of anxiety about who might be teaching the next day.This book nicely helps young readers process a common concern even though the illustrations and text contain a few awkward quirks. (Picture book. 4-6)

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