I chose this book in the library because the title intrigued me. The art didn't particularly interest me off of first glance, I genuinely just wanted to know why she was "quitting" kindergarten. I can wholeheartedly say there's not a single claim I could make about this story. It's just a feel good read, nothing more, nothing less. Upon actually reading the story, it's one of the funniest books I've ever read. Amanda Panda has her entire kindergarten experience planned out for herself- she's ready to take on the world. Then it happens: she run's into Bitsy at the bus stop. Bitsy is the antithesis of Amanda. Bitsy's favorite color is sparkles and she wants nothing more than to be a friend to everyone. When they go to class, Bitsy takes the seat next to Amanda and then "It is the end of the world". This is the beginning of Amanda's plan to more or less drop out. After a series of unfortunate events, Amanda abandons her class completely and walks to her brothers 2nd grade classroom. Eventually, Amanda is saved by the dreaded Bitsy and upon their return to their kindergarten class- they're no longer neighbors, but friends. The takeaway from this book appears to be something along the lines of not judging a book by it's cover (Bitsy), but in the same regard that could just be that I'm an adult actively searching for a message in the text rather than that of a child, who might just be along for the fun of it. ( )

This book is about Amanda’s plans for kindergarten. Amanda wanted everything to go her way, but sadly it did not as Betsy appeared to always be in her way. Amanda quit kindergarten after a long day and decided to visit her brothers, second-grade class. After realizing the words were too difficult and the chairs were not comfortable for her size, she decided to go back to kindergarten. Amanda decided to become friends with Betsy and realized it did not hurt to be kind to someone. ( )

As badly as I'd like to give this book five stars, it didn't make me tear up. This book broke some gender stereotypes and demonstrated the overcoming of differences in preferences and focuses on character. Additionally, a lesson is learned about getting ahead of yourself by Amanda when she quickly learned she wasn't ready to leave kindergarten for second grade. I'm loving this author's plots and lessons! ( )

I loved this book! It's my favorite book so far. The writing was very engaging from beginning to end. It was well organized and painted a picture in the your mind describing Amanda and her feeling towards kindergarten. I also liked how she developed the characters. The author introduces us to Amanda and her excitement about starting kindergarten. then she introduces Bitsy and then it takes the story for a turn, when Bitsy starts to "ruin" things for Amanda. and then at the end they become friends. I also enjoyed the illustrations, the illustrator made good decisions on deciding what to depict from the text. it was so full of color ( youthful energy) and i believe it enhanced the story. ( )