Back to School: Here, There, and Everywhere

Who doesn’t love the fragrance of newly sharpened pencils and freshly waxed floors? Add new books to that and—ahhhhh—it just smells like the start of school. I’m always looking for new titles for my school library, and as an educator who has worked in four different countries, First Day Around the World is a new one I am excited to get for September.

In this delightful book, Ibi Zoboi and Juanita Londoño take readers on a journey across countries and continents as children get ready for school with different foods and clothing, learn new things in the classroom in a variety of languages, and travel there and back with all sorts of transportation modes. I love the kind of book that takes you on a world tour through a particular lens, and this one does an especially good job at moving swiftly and seamlessly from place to place, without making the information feel too surface-level.  

I would love to display this with a globe and an atlas, and a stack of other books with a similar around-the-world structure.

Adventures to School: Real-Life Journeys of Students from Around the World by Miranda Paul, Baptiste Paul, and Isabel Muñoz examines how children travel to school, highlighting some expecially arduous and unique examples.

Let’s Eat!: Mealtime Around the World by Lynne Marie and Parwinder Singh provides a tasty menu of foods enjoyed in 13 different countries for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Bon appetit!

Let’s Celebrate!: Special Days Around the World by Kate DePalma and Martina Peluso is a joyful look at diverse holidays, festivals, and events celebrated by children.

I don’t know if anyone is more prolific than Margriet Ruurs in this area of nonfiction. It’s hard to choose which one of her books to highlight, but I think Birthdays Around the World illustrated by Ashly Barron may be my favorite. Based on interviews with children across the globe, this ode to birthdays is a delight.

Sara Holly Ackerman is a school librarian and children’s book author. Her books include The Gabi That Girma Wore, Not Just the Driver!, Challah for Shabbat Tonight, Woods & Words: The Story of Poet Mary Oliver, Good Knight, and others.