First Day Jitters: 1 (The Jitters Series)

I love this book! I had to teach an RE topic on Beginnings, the first lesson of which wanted to discuss children's own experience of new beginnings. I was trying to find a book/story to read them about a child's first day ay school. This one is perfect, with a man trying desperately to coax Sarah-Jane out of bed and out of the house to go to her new school. Sarah-Jane is very reluctant - "What if no one likes me, what if I don't like the new school, etc etc. \The great twist at the end of the story is that Sarah-Jane is the teacher! My class loved this and asked me lots of questions about how I felt on my first day at their school.

I bought this little book after searching high street book stores for some help with a problem my little girl had developed. After a long and happy Christmas Holiday she went back to school on the first day of the new term and suddenly refused, point blank, to go in to her class. She became very distressed and this was completely out of the blue and out of character. It transpired, after gentle interrogation that it was related to a 'minor' telling off she and two others had receieved and she now had an unreasonable fear of her head mistress. All other books I looked at were targeted at pre-school children starting school for the first time. This book addresses the emotions she was experiencing and has a fabulous twist at the end which 'humanizes' (if that's a word) the teacher too. Fingers crossed, the situation has improved greatly another book that may also have contributed to this improvement is 'Llama Llama misses Mamma'.

A lovely book that I bought for my class. A nice story for the beginning of term with a lovely twist at the end, especially as it was my first day at school too! The book came quickly as it was shipped from america and was great quality.

A different approach to a first day at school book. The twist at the end made my son laugh

Great story. Arrived on time and in good condition. Used for my transition morning. Thanks.

My year threes really enjoyed this story and so did I. It was the first day for all of us so we had a really great conversation come out of it. :)

Nice book

3.5/5 About the story: We follow Sarah on her first morning back to school, but we start off with her hiding beneath the covers, refusing to go to school, and as you go through the book, we never get to see Sarah other than a toe here or the top of her head there. Our attention and curiosity to see what Sarah looks like keeps us reading until the very end, and when we do finally get to see Sarah on the final page, there's a fun plot twist which is sure to make you smile! It's not so much a story as it is almost a joke with a punchline at the end. It doesn't really teach children how to deal with first day jitters, but rather it acknowledges how children can feel on their first day of school (nervous / dreading it etc) and puts thier feelings into words. My only quibble with this book is that it reinforces negative feelings rather than helping children be more positive about their first day jitters and I felt like this book would be more feel-good and uplifting if instead of focusing so much on the negative, it helped give children tools of dealing with first day jitters. But then, it would be a totally different book. About the artwork: Drawn in a retro, classic, old-fashioned painted style that reminded me a little of Norman Rockwell illustrations: less cutesy and more realistic. - - - I was kindly provided with a reviewer's copy of this book for honest reviewing purposes