It’s Alpaca’s first day of school and she has a great day in store: getting on the bus with friends, meeting her new teacher, learning school rules, and playing on the playground. The day flies by and she can’t wait to go back to school the next day. This is a great introductory book for children who are starting school for the first time. It’s written to ease first-day-of-school jitters by showing that new experiences — and small hiccups — turn out okay.

The elementary school invites Farmer Brown to bring his animals as guests for Farm Day, so the barnyard crew practices their best classroom behavior — standing quietly in line, using inside voices, and learning to share. But it turns out farm animals aren’t actually allowed in school (a health code violation), so Farmer Brown ends up going to school alone — or so he thinks, since the animals turn out to be excellent at sneaking in disguise.

First Day, Hooray follows a classroom of children as they learn to identify and work through the range of emotions that come up on a first day — happiness, excitement, anger, and eventually the “hooray” of a good day wrapping up. It shows multiple scenarios that might happen at school, both bad and good: feeling lonely in the cafeteria, messing up in art class, and playing on the playground.

Told from the perspective of the school bus, this story walks readers through the bus’s weekday morning routine: it picks kids up, drives them to school, gets them there on time, and keeps them safe. Along the way it explains its signals — yellow lights mean cars should slow down, and red lights with the stop paddle mean everyone must stop until it finishes flashing. This is a great introduction to safely riding the bus and learning what the signals mean.

Kindergarten Gets Ready tells the story of the first day of school from a new perspective: the teacher’s! Mr. Bee spends the days leading up to the first day of school diligently cleaning and organizing the kindergarten classroom. He makes sure the learning centers are prepped, the posters are hung, and there is a nametag and chair for every student. Mr. Bee is ready to welcome every child to his classroom.

The group of children from the original All Are Welcome picture book return for a new school year. They’re eager to see old friends, make new friends, and learn to be readers, writers, listeners, and leaders. Three guiding values run through the story: Always try. Have fun. Be kind. This book is also available in VOX format (book with audio).

Willa the Whale likes school, but there is one thing that makes her very worried: being called on in class! Whenever the teacher asks Willa a question, Willa freezes and her mind goes blank. With the help of her parents, she learns to be confident in herself and her ideas. She thinks to herself “It isn’t always easy to share the things I know, but ideas, thoughts, and questions are the way I learn and grow!”