This is the humorous tale of Tillie and her school principal, Mr. Keene. Mr. Keene is so proud of the work the students at his school are doing that he decides to have students come to school on the weekends, then holidays, and all through the summer. The illustrations are filled with funny scenarios for readers to enjoy and the repetition in the dialogue and writing make it a fun story to read out loud. It is a good reminder for Mr. Keene, and readers, that sometimes too much of a good thing, turns out to be not so good in the end.

Independent Reading Grade Level: K-3

First sentence: Mr. Keene was a principal who loved his school. Every morning he strolled down the hallway and saw the children in their classes. He saw them learning shapes and colors and numbers and letters. He saw them reading and writing and drawing and painting. He saw them making dinosaurs and forts and pyramids. "Oh!" he would say. "Aren't these fine children? Aren't these fine teachers? Isn't this a fine, fine school?"

Premise/plot: What happens when Mr. Keene, the school principal, gets CARRIED away with the idea of having a fine, fine school??????? Mr. Keene is so incredibly proud of how wonderfully FINE his school is, that he always has to push, to strive to make things even better. But is there such a thing as TOO much????

My thoughts: I really LOVED this one so much. I can't believe I'm only now discovering this one. I had no idea Sharon Creech ever wrote picture books. So what led me to seek this one out? to discover it? I saw that there is a sequel coming SMART, SMART SCHOOL. The premise to that one sounds awesome. I knew I needed to go back and pick this one up.

This is a funny picture book that I'd recommend to teachers and students. ( )

The whole book is cute, but Tillie's dog Beans definitely steals the show. ( )

Principal Keene loves his school and he just can't get enough of it. He continues to add school because his students can learn so much more. Do you see any problems with this? Well the students certainly did. The main character is the one to help Mr. Keene understand that time outside of school is valuable. Find out how she does this in the silly book! ( )