The Berenstain Bears Go to School

 Okay, folks, a back-to-school reading list would be incomplete without including The Berenstain Bears Go to School (c.1978).  Call it nostalgia or good karma, either way this book makes any child want to race through those kindergarten doors.  Take it from me, once a painfully shy, Wemberly worrier, first-day-of-school stomach-somersaults child . . . this book changes everything!  It's classic Stan & Jan Berenstain at their best:

Let me be so bold as to add that this is their best in The Berestain Bears series.  Who wouldn't want to begin kindergarten in this classroom with Miss Honeybear?

Sign me up!  Now don't you wish that you were starting your first day in kindergarten?!

Never Talk to Strangers

I discovered Never Talk to Strangers (c. 1967) by Irma Joyce and illustrated by George Buckett on my friend Jane's bookshelf.  Now folks, here's a clever, nonthreatening way to introduce "stranger danger" to your young ones!  Did I mention just how winning Buckett's whimsical illustrations are?!

Joyce immediately grabs her young audience's attention with her humorous rhymes, for example:
          If you're mailing a letter to Aunt Lucille,
          And you see a car with a whale at the wheel,
          Stay away from him and his automobile,
                Never talk to strangers.

So while the kids roll with laughter (literally) at Joyce's silly rhymes, they learn and remember the principles behind the humor: welcome friends, but never talk to strangers.

Well done, Joyce and Buckett!  I'm now on a hunt for a copy of our own!

Another "stranger danger" recommendation: