Franklin Goes to School

Paulette Bourgeois's Franklin Goes to School is a book for 5 year olds about the morning of a very first day at school, and a small turtle whose tummy is full of jumping frogs.

What happens

Franklin can count by twos. He can tie his shoes, zip zippers and button buttons. He has a new pencil case with a ruler, an eraser and twelve coloured pencils he sharpened himself.

None of it is helping.

He wakes with the sun and hurries his parents along, because he cannot possibly be late. His mum points out that even the teacher is still asleep. There is time for a big breakfast, which Franklin does not want, because the frogs have got there first.

Halfway to the bus stop he grabs his tummy and says he does not want to go.

The bit that makes this one so useful is what happens at the bus stop. Beaver has brought her favourite book and can read all of it. Rabbit has a brand new notebook and can write most of his numbers. Franklin says nothing and rubs his tummy.

That is the whole worry, really. Not the teacher or the bus or the building. Just the feeling that everyone else arrived knowing things you do not.

Anyone who has watched a child hug them goodbye and then keep hugging while the other children find seats will recognise this book immediately.

What Mr Owl does about it is the lovely part. He does not tell Franklin to cheer up or promise it will be fine. He asks him what he would like to do, and when Franklin says he cannot do what the others can, he finds the one thing Franklin already knows and lets him teach it to the teacher.

It is short, so you can read the whole thing the night before the first day and again in the morning, which is roughly what it is for. The friends are all animals and nobody is unkind. Franklin's parents say the right things without making promises they cannot keep.

And there is a proper answer to the tummy at the end, which comes from Franklin himself rather than from an adult.

What to read next

If this one lands, Franklin Goes to Hospital does the same job for a different worry. Franklin cracks his shell playing football, needs a pin put in it, and has to spend a night away from home.