The King of Kindergarten
The King of Kindergarten, by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin Random House, 2019, picture book for ages 4-6This book is fun, fun, fun! The non-rhyming, but still rhythmic text is a blast to read aloud, and the illustrations are crazy clever and full of joy!
The story is narrated as if from a parent to a child on his first day of kindergarten. It describes the how the child’s day will progress, from waking and brushing his “Royal Chiclets” to sharing pudding with a new friend, to riding the “big yellow carriage” home at the end of the day.
Barnes uses words likely to be familiar as royal-sounding to very young readers , like carriage and fortress and kingdom, as well as some word play that might fly a bit above the kids’ heads, but directly hit funny bones of the adult readers…but I won’t spoil those for you! It’s clear that every word, phrase, sentence is chosen with care and purpose, making this a read-aloud that’s fun for all ages, intriguing to listen to, and entertaining to read aloud.
Barnes is a whiz at rhythm. Often picture book writers ignore rhythm unless they are writing a rhyming book. But when I read The King of Kindergarten aloud, I find myself sort of swaying along or bopping up and down a bit in my chair. If you’re looking at this title as a mentor text, try replacing some words with synonyms for the words Barnes chose. Read the line aloud. How does it sound? Less lyrical, perhaps? Barnes also plays with letter sounds (alliteration and such), series of three words (I’ll talk about the rule of threes in a blog post soon), and other techniques for encouraging caregivers to read the lines aloud with particular intonation and rhythm, which makes the experience so cool for young listeners.
I can’t sign off without talking about Brantley-Newton’s illustrations. On the first page, the main character’s bed is covered in a surprisingly realistic looking quilt. It is these quilt patterns that draw me to her illustrations, because they remind me of my mom. But the other thing that I find so striking in this book are the drawings that appear to be translucent. When the child stands in front of the school’s main doors, he sees his reflection in the glass. His reflection is wearing a crown that is drawn almost like see-through chalk. She’s done this technique in other picture books, too, and it’s just as surprising and graceful to me. There is so much more to love in her illustrations, but for now I just want to go back to this book and revel in her art. You’ll have to get yourself a copy and find the little gems that hit you in the feels.