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Summary
Summary
Tomorrow is the first day of school and everyone is getting ready for Little Cliff's big day. But Little Cliff doesn't want to go to school, especially if it means leaving behind toys, home, and family. To him, school is all about "work, work, work" and being "quiet, quiet, quiet." Good thing Mama Pearl will make sure he gets to school on time. Sensitive and gently humorous, this irresistible story of first-day jitters proves that, though sometimes scary, growing up can also be fun, fun, fun! Clifton L. Taulbert and E. B. Lewis collaborated previously on Little Cliff and the Porch People, which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, described as "brimming with an appreciation for familiar, homespun pleasures."
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-In this second story about Little Cliff, an African-American boy growing up in the rural South in the 1950s, it is time for his first day of school. His happy and proud great-grandparents have laid out his special clothes, but Cliff does "not want to start first grade-not one bit." He is so frightened when it's time to leave that he tries hiding under the house-a favorite refuge from the heat of summer. However, determined Mama Pearl coaxes him out and walks him to school herself. As they near the schoolyard, Cliff sees his friends enjoying a ball game and realizes that school isn't just being "quiet, quiet, quiet" and "work, work, work." He can have fun as well. The lengthy text is appropriately flavored by dialect that is readily accessible to young readers: Mama Pearl chides, "Cliff, don't step on my nerves. Now you git them shoes on right now." Lewis's large watercolor paintings of the boy with downcast eyes, bowed head, and slumped shoulders speak volumes about his apprehensions. The country schoolhouse looks run-down and uninviting until it is surrounded by energetic youngsters. Children will recognize in Cliff's reactions their own first-day jitters and will be comforted by the last scene in which a laughing-crying Mama Pearl hugs him and says, "I am just so happy we made it to school on our first day."-Marianne Saccardi, Norwalk Community College, CT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"The charmer first met in Little Cliff and the Porch People returns to face a new school year," wrote PW. "Though Lewis's watercolors capture an era a half-century ago (the 1950s South), the feelings of anxiety Taulbert conveys are still the same for today's readers." Ages 4-8. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) In this sequel to Little Cliff and the Porch People, the events are familiar and predictable. Little Cliff, who has lived with his great-grandparents ""all his life,"" is apprehensive about his first day at Miss Maxey's school. Mama Pearl has laid out brand-new clothes (a wool shirt and heavy cap despite the ""hot Delta sun""), and he's been told he'll have to sit still and work hard. No wonder he resists and delays, pretends his new shoes don't fit, and even hides under the porch when it's time to set out for first grade. However, a happy surprise awaits: all his friends are at school, inviting him to join their ball game. ""Nobody had told him you could have fun at school!"" Clifton Taulbert's leisurely telling lends warmth and nuance to the simple events, as do E. B. Lewis's beautifully observed, freely rendered watercolors. In the spirit of Norman Rockwell, Lewis captures both the subtleties of the boy's changing moods and Mama Pearl's mixed emotions at his willingness, after all, to say goodbye. Lewis is an accomplished visual storyteller whose skillful compositions and varied points of view add much to this unusually appealing depiction of a classic rite of passage as enacted in the South a generation or two ago. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The first day of first grade looms, and Little Cliff has sadly lined up his toys to bid goodbye: " I can't play with y'all no more. I gotta go to Miss Maxey's school way down the road, a million miles from here. I know you gonna miss me, 'cause I miss y'all already.' " Next morning, great-grandmother Mama Pearl accompanies him to the playground-where he delightedly discovers that, contrary to what the grown-ups around him have been implying, there's going to be more to school than "work, work, work," and "quiet, quiet, quiet." With expert, warmly sympathetic realism, Lewis captures Little Cliff's hangdog face and body language to perfection; young children having their own qualms about school will readily identify with this reluctant scholar, and so may share his relief at the end as well. It won't matter that this is set in the rural 50s, a time of lunch buckets and suspenders and brown oxfords. This is some of Lewis's best work, emotion-laden watercolors capturing an important time and place. There's something here for older readers to ponder too, in Mama Pearl's unexplained tears and pride as Little Cliff races off to join his friends in the schoolyard. An affecting sequel to Little Cliff and the Porch People (1999) that was the first to offer some of Taulbert's characters from his adult memoirs to young readers. (Picture book. 5-7)
Booklist Review
Ages 3^-8. Like Little Cliff and the Porch People (1999), this is a warm picture book about an African American boy who lives with his loving great-grandparents in a big frame house in the Mississippi Delta in the 1950s. Little Cliff is terrified about starting school. Words and pictures show him trying to hide and making excuses, while his great-grandparents insist that he has to go. By the time he gets to the schoolhouse with Mama Pearl, he's in tears and she's helpless--until his friends call to him from the schoolyard and he realizes that school can be fun. As with the first book, this one will appeal as much to adults as to the kids they read to, and it's sure to spark family storytelling. Of course, it's also a way for children everywhere to confront their own fears of that dreaded first day. The words are simple and direct, and Lewis' moving, realistic watercolors portray the family bonds, the strength of the old people, and their proud letting go of the boy they love. --Hazel Rochman