First Day In Grapes

First Day In Grapes

Written by: L. King Pérez
Illustrated by: Robert Casilla
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Grades: 3-5
Awards: Pura Belpré honor

In this book, a boy named Chico and his family moved to a camp in a grape vineyard. Chico's mother woke him up and told him to get ready for his first day of third grade at school. This wasn't his first time moving to a new school, as his family used to live on artichokes, onion, and garlic farms before. Chico saw no reason to go to school as he wanted to be a race car driver, but his mother informed him that his only job right now is to go to school. Chico got on the bus and was intimidated by these fourth grade boys, Mike and Tony. Chico went to his new class, Ms. Andrews, where he made a friend, John. Chico introduced himself to his classmates, and said the Pledge of Allegiance, which made him feel American. Ms. Andrew's first activity was to have Chico write a story about a picture he was give, which was a white house. Chico struggled to write and to find the right words to say, but he mentioned how we would like to have that nice house, as his current house has holes in the floor. During math time, Chico impressed Ms. Andrews with his fast addition skills. John implied that Chico should do the math fair next month, as he would do well in it. During lunch, Mike and Tony started to pick on Chico again. Chico stood up to Mike and Tony by informing them on how fast he can add in his head. All of Chico's classmates stood next to him and told Mike and Tony to back off. Mike and Tony left and everyone was happy that Chico was able to stand up to those bullies. Chico got on the bus to go home and introduced himself to the bus driver, with the bus driver remembering his name and being friendly to Chico. Chico arrived home and believed that he had a good first day of school.

I enjoyed reading this book and would like to have this in my classroom library. This book is good for third to fifth graders. Students can write and talk about their first day experiences and how they would be nice to a brand new student in their classroom.