Starting school is one of the biggest milestones in a little person’s life and we are approaching it, as always, with the help of picture books. Here’s a selection of some of the books we’ve been enjoying.
Usborne First Experiences – Going to School by Anne Civardi, illustrated by Stephen Cartwright. Published by Usborne.
The ever reliable Usborne first experiences share the first day at school for the Peach twins, Percy and Polly. As always we start with a clear introduction to the family and their home. The Peach family live in a flat which is great as different homes are not that common in picture books.
The twins first day includes lots of things that children can expect to see when they start school; hanging their coat in the cloakroom, painting, singing, snack time and playing outside. The illustrations are peppered with subtle humour that young children will pick up on and enjoy; the little boy balancing juice on his head, the two children who are sticking things to each other with glue. And of course there’s the Usborne duck to find on every page. The different personalities of the children come across brilliantly in the illustrations and will give children the opportunity to recognise and relate to their own feelings about starting school.
Buy the book from Waterstones.
Hugless Douglas Goes to Little School by David Melling. Published by Hodder Children’s Books.
Hugless Douglas and his faithful sheep friends are embarking on a new adventure in this book, they’re going to Little School. Douglas brings his big hugs and endless enthusiasm to his new school as his teacher, Miss Moo-Hoo tries her best to keep things under control.
As well as featuring lots of activities that children will recognise, this book touches on the new and unusual feelings that starting something different might trigger. This is handled in a kid-friendly way with Douglas feeling a “tickle inside his tummy and it made him feel very happy.” We love spotting all the mischievous and silly things the animals are getting up to, our favourite is the sheep whose bottom is being used as a paint stamper!
Perfect for children who are starting nursery as well as older ones, this is a fun and light-hearted read that is sure to help soothe any nerves.
Buy the book from Waterstones.
Lucy & Tom At School by Shirley Hughes. Published by Red Fox at Random House.
Lucy and her little brother Tom have mirrored the lives of so many children over the last 30 years or so and they are still just as relevant today. In this story, Lucy is nearly 5 and her mother is preparing her to start school. Tom watches as Lucy gets a uniform, a new satchel and heads off to school leaving him a bit lonely at home. Seeing that he is missing his playmate, mum starts taking Tom to a playgroup and even gets him his own satchel for his things so he feels like a school boy too.
Shirley Hughes’s beautifully detailed illustrations provide so much to look at. We love the page of the playground full of children with Shirley’s skillful observations of how children play filling the page.
There is a perfect dose of honesty in this book with Lucy dealing with other children who aren’t always kind to her and talking about the days when she doesn’t feel like going. A great all round look at starting school and perfect to read with younger ones who are watching their siblings head off to school.
Buy the book from Waterstones.
Knight School by Jane Clarke, illustrated by Jane Massey. Published by Red Fox at Random House.
Little Knight and Little Dragon are best friends who love to spend their days playing together but, the time has come for them both to start school. Little Knight starts Knight School whilst Little Dragon starts Dragon School and each discover that school is lots of fun. The only trouble is they miss their friend, they miss each other.
Things are made more difficult by the fact that Knight school is during the day and Dragon School is at night. One day in the early evening they plan an adventure together gazing at the stars. This page has a gorgeous illustration with gold foil shooting stars and constellations across a deep blue sky.
They realise how important it is to make time for friends and make sure they continue to have adventures in the holidays and at weekends. A beautiful story of friendship and a great book to help children who may not be going to the same school as their friends.
Buy the book from Waterstones.
Starting School by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Published by Puffin Books.
Another classic picture book team who are a staple in our house and this book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg does not dissapoint. Set out with their iconic illustrations almost becoming part of the text this is a fabulous book packed with information and details about the new world of school.
We follow 8 children who are all starting school together and from their first trip to the school gates all the important details are picked out and examined; meeting the teacher, the toys in the classroom, where the coats go and even looking at the toilets. It’s these little details that are easy for grown ups to forget about but can be hugely important for young children.
As we watch this group of friends be introduced to new experiences it’s clear that not all of them are sure about joining in. While the rest of the class are enjoying the climbing frame outside Kate is watching and “thinks about climbing.” And it’s left at that, perfect for those children who don’t always want to join in straight away.
The book follows the class all the way through their first term and showcases all the ups and downs of finding your feet at school. This book is like an encyclopedia of school, an essential read for all those about to embark on this new adventure.
Buy the book from Waterstones.
Whiffy Wilson: The Wolf Who Wouldn’t Go To School by Caryl Hart, illustrated by Leonie Lord. Published by Orchard Books.
There are all sorts of reasons that children might not want to go to school and for Whiffy Wilson he thinks it will be boring and would much rather stay at home and watch TV all day. Not only does he not want to go to school he flat out refuses to do anything that looks remotely like learning. Luckily, he has a very patient and wise friend, Dotty who lives next door.
Dotty helps to encourage Whiffy to come to school with her and we see that Whiffy’s really feeling a little bit worried that he’ll make the teacher cross if he gets things wrong. Dotty is the perfect mentor and shows Whiffy all the fun things that you can do at school. Sure enough, Whiffy has a great time and can’t wait to go the next day. He’s also surprised to hear that all the lovely playing he’s been doing actually counts as “work”!
Written in rhyme and with fun and engaging illustrations this book is sure to help ease any anxious feelings about starting school.
Buy the book from Waterstones.
As well as reading plenty about starting school this subject has been influencing our play a lot too. Here’s another example of how we’ve been preparing with our small world tuff tray for starting school…
We have a Duplo school set so we used this as well as lots of other Duplo bricks and different toys to set up our school. I let my four-year-old take the lead on what should be included which was great as I could really see what he already knew about school and the things he was looking forward to.
As you can see we had a carpet time, outdoor area, sand and water, snack time and somewhere to go to the toilet. And of course, no school that I had a hand in making would be complete without a well stocked book corner!
Do you have any favourite books about starting school? What activities are you doing to help your little ones prepare? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below. Good luck to any new school starters and their parents of course!
This post contains affiliate links that won’t change the way you shop but might make us a little bit of money… that we will probably spend on more books.
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Some lovely looking books I’m going to be hunting down and, wow, your Small World Tuff Tray is amazing! Love all the little details. I am definitely copying!
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Thank you 🙂 hope you have fun making yours!
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A brilliant blog post that I found super useful. Little One is due to start nursery in September. The school organise it so that it’s two full school days and one half day. It will be a change for her, one which I’m sure she will enjoy, but it’s also the first time she’ll be away from me. We have Starting School at home and a few other schoolish books but many you’ve included we’ve not read. Thank you for sharing. Filza
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You’re so welcome, glad you found it helpful. I hope your little one enjoys her nursery 🙂
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My eldest starts school in September too and i’m working on a similar post. We love the hugless Duglas one and The one by the Ahlberg’s. Love the tuff spot too.
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Looking forward to reading your post too!
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You’ve chosen a fabulous selection of starting school books here, we absolutely love the Whiffy Wilson book. There are so many great books to help prepare a child for school, we have 3 starting school blogposts on Story Snug.
#ReadWithMe
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I can see why you have three posts about it, I had to limit myself to 6 for this one or it would have just been too long! #readwithme
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Some wonderful choices, books are such a great help for milestones such as these. Thanks for sharing with #readwithme
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We always go to books first for things like this 🙂 #readwithme
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What a great list of books! And love the small world play – you’re so clever. Can I ask what site or programme you use to add your text on top of the picture – I’m still looking for a good one! #readwithme
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Ah thank you so much, the hardest thing is getting a good photo! Will message you about the pictures x #readwithme
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Thank you lovely! #KLTR
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They all look great. I love the sound of the Hugless Douglas book 🙂
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It’s a good one, such a cheeky class of animals too!
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You’re so creative with your activities, I love it! I don’t actually remember reading many books about school in the run up to my daughter starting last September, I borrowed a few from the library when she started preschool but I can’t remember them now. These ones look lovely! My daughter borrowed the ‘Whiffy Wilson’ one from her class library and thought it was hilarious! #readwithme
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Thank you for your lovely comments 🙂 I hadn’t read any Whiffy Wilson but my son recognised him from another book at his nursery. We really like him too #readwithme
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What a lovely selection! My mum got my son the Janet and Allen Ahlberg book when he started school. He’s 16 and going into Year 12 now! We had some of the Peach twins books about other things (I particularly remember the new baby one!), but not starting school. We had a lovely book about a dinosaur starting school. but don’t remember the title any more.
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It’s lovely that you have fond memories of reading this books with your son too 🙂
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there are some great books to help with the transition to starting school aren’t there?
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I know, I’ve seen lots more since I wrote the post too.
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What a great selection of books, I totally missed out on these last year when my boys were getting ready to start school although they were so ready and excited, they didn’t need any encouragement! #KCACOLS
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Glad to hear your boys enjoyed starting school, thanks for commenting #kcacols
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love your selection of books, thanks for sharing them with us #KCACOLS
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Thank you, thanks for commenting #kcacols
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Great suggestions, we have the Starting School book and really enjoyed it! #KCACOLS
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It’s a great book isn’t it #kcacols
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These look great. My daughter couldn’t wait to go to school but I’ve heard horror stories from others. I can see where these could be a big help #KCACOLS
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Picture books are always a great way to help with transitions #kcacols
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I love the Lego duplo activity you did! Did you set it up together? My four year old and I are working on a book together this week to prepare for preschool. We were just at the library today…I wish I had this list before we went!
#blogcrush
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Ah you’ll have to look for some of them on your next trip. Yes we set up the activity together, he was really excited about making it!
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A great selection! I’ve been trying to track down a copy of Knight School, it looks right up our street. I blogged about our favourite back to school books last week, if you want to check it out 🙂 Some additional titles to yours.
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Thank you 🙂 I really like Knight School especially as it reassures children that they can still see their friends even if they aren’t at the same school. Hope you manage to find a copy, think our one came from an English Heritage shop.
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I think I need to get hold of Knight school for my son, he would love it! I also love your idea of re enacting school scenes during play, what a fab idea! Thank you so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time.
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It was so sweet hearing how much he knee a out school through his play #kcacols
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We have the Janet & Allan Alhberg Starting School book – even though BB is going into year two it’s still a firm favourite! #KCACOLS
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It’s such a gorgeous book #kcacols
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There are some brilliant books here! I’m definitely going to have to get some for when Dot starts school next year 🙂
#KCACOLS
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I could write another 2 or 3 blog posts about more starting school books, there are so many lovely ones out there. Might do a new one next year #kcacols
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Wow, these look really useful. #kcacols
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Thank you 🙂 #kcacols
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This is a really useful post for all those parents out there who have their little ones starting in reception in September. We have the Starting School book which all three of mine enjoyed reading. #KCACOLS
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That seems to be everyone’s favourite from this list! #kcacols
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Thank you for this post. I have been looking for books about starting school to read with my four year old in our library but no joy. I will definitely be getting the Douglas one as Leo loves him. xx #BlogCrush
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That’s a shame, we found loads more in our library last week. Maybe you could ask the librarian to request some?
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Some great books here – my little one starts primary school next September and we’ll start talking about it soon. He had a book about starting nursery that really helped him with the transition.
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You’ll have to have a look for some of the books for next year or let me know if you find any different ones.
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Dropping by again via #KLTR This is a fantastic post that I’ve shared with #blogcrush as I think it’s a great way to help children adjust to school.
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Thank you for sharing 🙂 #kltr
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What a wonderful post – I love all the reading ideas, and the small world play idea is great!
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Thank you 🙂 we loved doing the small world play.
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Books really help children process new experiences I think and whenever something big is coming up I always look to get my children a book to support what is happening. I think the Usborne first books are great, love your tray too! Thanks for linking up to #KLTR
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This is awesome. I love the look of hugless douglas. I think it is so great how you extend the interest from the book to real activity and it looks super fun too. Such a great way to make books and reading more fun. I love this post.
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