Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten Paperback – Picture Book, July 9, 2001

As a school librarian, I think a copy of this delightful book should be in the home of every in-coming kindergartner and in every elementary school library, and every kindergarten room should have the entire series. Author Joe Slate and illustrator Ashley Wolff have created a kindergarten classic! The book has several facets - the alphabet, rhyming text, a teacher's tasks, and students' feelings. Miss Bindergarten (a border collie) has 26 students (each a different animal), and their names start with the 26 letters of the alphabet. The action alternates between Miss B's vigorous efforts to get her classroom ready, and the attitudes of the 26 children as they prepare for their new experience. There are examples of every feeling - Danny Hess rushes to dress, Fran Lister kisses her sister, and Ian Lowe says "I won't go!" The story is warm and wonderful, the illustrations are gorgeous, and the book is so rich in amusing details that it will be read and re-read many times. Thank you, Mr. Slate and Ms Wolff!

Catchy book. Toddlers seem to enjoy the many animals and the rhymes.

I've loved this book since I was a child (20 years ago, ha!). It does a great job of showing different emotions on the first day of school. Some kids are nervous, others excited. It validates kid's feelings in a fun, casual way :)The pictures are really engaging and the book is pretty quick to read. You can get through it in less than 10 minutes. It's also good for all ages, preschool and up.

Nice book for the kids

Great read! Kids love the illustrations!

We love Miss Bindergarten and all of her class. However, we're very disappointed that only this book was printed in the USA while the rest of the books about Miss Bindergarten's class were printed in China. Ongoing problems with toxic inks and dyes, among other things, mean that we can't be certain that anything manufactured in the PRC is safe for children.

I think this book is charming, and my younger child loves the animal illustrations. But my kindergartener isn't interested in it, and now that he has actually started kindergarten, I can guess one possible reason why: the classroom shown in the book bears ZERO resemblance to his kindergarten room. Where we live, kindergarten in the public schools isn't about toys and art and dramatic play. It's about desks and workbooks. So the classroom in the book shows my son everything he misses from pre-K. In his shoes, I think I would hate this book for that reason. And as a parent, this book makes me all the more unhappy about his real kindergarten. This is not the book's fault, of course, but it's a small lesson in unintended consequences for me as a parent.

Well loved book.