Planet Kindergarten

May 26, 2014
For one brave boy, kindergarten isn’t just a grade—it’s a destination. He gets to school via rocket (one that looks suspiciously like his father’s hatchback), and considers his classmates to be aliens, including two that could be relatives of Cousin It. The boy adjusts to “zero gravity” (“We have to try hard to stay in our seats. And our hands go up a lot”), discovers that he likes space food, and freaks out during naptime: “Is the room running out of oxygen?” Prigmore’s manic digital art gives a nod to Jetsons-era cartoons, while Ganz-Schmitt’s metaphor will ring true with intrepid readers. Ages 3–5. Author’s agent: Jennifer Unter, the Unter Agency.

November 1, 2014

PreS-K-In a clever take on the classic "first day of school" story, this tale uses space exploration as an extended metaphor. Through the comforting lens of his space obsession, a young boy processes the many new experiences of kindergarten. Kids who aren't familiar with space travel may struggle to understand the sophisticated NASA-inspired lingo without the physical picture book's visual cues. Terminology such as commander, mission control, and capsule could send contextless children into a frustrated tailspin, and the youngest auditors may need a more knowledgeable translator to guide them through the first couple of listens. Noah Galvin narrates with a crackly adolescent voice, creating a slightly disconcerting dichotomy between the kindergarten-aged protagonist and the middle school-aged reader. Space-loving kids will get a kick out of this recording; others may just be left in orbit-although they'll get a vocabulary lesson in the process.-Jennifer Verbrugge, State Library Services, Roseville, MN

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