This Is a School

by John Schu, Veronica Miller Jamison (Illustrator)

Overview

A moving celebration of school and all it may signify: work and play, creativity and trust, and a supportive community that extends beyond walls

A school isn’t just a building; it is all the people who work and learn together. It is a place for discovery and asking questions. A place for sharing, for helping, and for community. It is a place of hope and healing, even when that community can’t be together in the same room. John Schu, a librarian and former ambassador of school libraries for Scholastic, crafts a loving letter to schools and the people that make up the communities within in a picture book debut beautifully illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536204582
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/29/2022
Series:	This Is Our World
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	10.40(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

John Schu is the author of This Is a School, illustrated by Veronica Miller Jamison. He is also a children’s librarian at Bookelicious and a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University. He was previously the Ambassador of School Libraries for Scholastic Book Fairs and has worked as a classroom teacher and school librarian. He travels all over the world visiting schools and meeting with students, teachers, and administrators as he advocates for the people and things he cares about most: kids, books, schools, and the libraries—and librarians—that connect them. John Schu lives in Naperville, Illinois. You can find his popular blog, Watch. Connect. Read., at www.JohnSchu.com and follow him @MrSchuReads.

Veronica Miller Jamison is an illustrator and surface pattern designer who was trained as a fashion designer. She has created art and patterns for Hallmark, Essence magazine, and Lilly Pulitzer. The illustrator of A Computer Called Katherine, written by Suzanne Slade, Veronica Miller Jamison lives in Philadelphia.

Editorial Reviews

01/24/2022

Making his picture book debut, librarian and book advocate Schu invites readers into a school community in which all voices are heard, each person learns, and everyone—and everything, including the plants in the school garden—grows. Starting with the school’s most basic unit (“This is a kid”), spreads pull back to reveal a brick building where children and adults of various abilities, ethnicities, and skin tones come and go, learning, talking, and working. Narration that spotlights “we” and mixed-media spreads by Miller Jamison (A Computer Called Katherine) focus on the communal rather than the individual. Learning means that things can be uncomfortable: “Sometimes we don’t have all the answers. Other days we just feel stuck.” In the spreads that follow, a child who’s “stuck” on a math lesson gets help from teachers and from a fellow student, too. Jamison’s palette uses a full spectrum of gently faded colors in friendly, sun-bleached spreads and vignettes. This introduction to school communities shows children what happens inside a classroom via a vision of school at its best—one that leaves readers with a sense of belonging and inclusion. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Molly O’Neill, Root Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Schu's debut picture book salutes the school community and the positive role it plays in kids' lives. . . Jamison's watercolor, acrylic, and digital-collage illustrations employ a sunny palette, well suited to the text's upbeat tone. . . . Schu emphasizes the school as a community, where growth, celebrations, transformations, and work all occur, providing a reassuring introduction to this near-universal experience.
—Booklist (starred review)

Librarian and book advocate Schu invites readers into a school community in which all voices are heard, each person learns, and everyone—and everything, including the plants in the school garden—grows. . . . This introduction to school communities shows children what happens inside a classroom via a vision of school at its best—one that leaves readers with a sense of belonging and inclusion.
—Publishers Weekly

Well suited for both independent reading as well as a read aloud. . . . Full spread illustrations showing the whole community mix with smaller, more intimate portrayals of kids and adults hard at work, providing strong movement throughout the story. This is a solid choice for classrooms and libraries looking for updated beginning of the year or school stories.
—School Library Journal

A soaring panegyric to elementary school as a communal place to learn and grow. . . the central message here is that school is a physical space, not a virtual one, where learning and community happen. . . . A full-hearted valentine.
—Kirkus Reviews

This book is so beautiful! I can see the love, joy, inclusion, and empathy on every single page. What a gift this is for kids, educators, and families.
—Supriya Kelkar, children’s author of Brown is Beautiful

This upbeat, book-length definition of ‘school’ emphasizes big ideas. The spare, syncopated text describes 'school' as a place to grow, learn, create, celebrate, transform and work in community. It’s the cheery art that makes the abstract concrete. . . . Enthusiasm is lightly tempered with honesty. . . . The pandemic is not yet out of sight or mind, but the overall message is clear: School is cool.
—The San Francisco Chronicle

John Schu’s friendly book about how school feels when it’s at its very best is an invitation for young people to learn, grow and enjoy their days in the classroom. . . . Focused on the joys of togetherness, this simple but effective book is a wonderful way to encourage young people to make the most of their new school year.
—The Virginian Pilot

John Schu's story serves as a letter to schools and addresses how its members are still a community, whether they are together in the classroom or not.
—Tiny Beans

From the Publisher

08/01/2022

PreS-Gr 3—This book opens with a single student, from a single class that goes out into a single hallway, and shows readers a school teeming with life. A solid choice for classrooms and libraries looking for updated beginning of the year or school stories.

School Library Journal

2022-03-30
A soaring panegyric to elementary school as a communal place to learn and grow.

“This is a kid,” Schu begins. “This is a kid in a class. This is a class in a hall….” If that class—possibly second graders, though they could be a year to either side of that—numbers only about a dozen in Jamison’s bright paintings, it makes up for that in diversity, with shiny faces of variously brown or olive complexion well outnumbering paler ones; one child using a wheelchair; and at least two who appear to be Asian. (The adult staff is likewise racially diverse.) The children are individualized in the art, but the author’s narrative is addressed more to an older set of readers as it runs almost entirely to collective nouns and abstract concepts: “We share. We help. / This is a community, growing.” Younger audiences will zero in on the pictures, which depict easily recognizable scenes of both individual and collective learning and play, with adults and classmates always on hand to help out or join in. Signs of conflict are unrealistically absent, but an occasional downcast look does add a bit of nuance to the general air of eager positivity on display. A sad face at an apartment window with a comment that “[s]ometimes something happens, and we can’t all be together” can be interpreted as an oblique reference to pandemic closings, but the central message here is that school is a physical space, not a virtual one, where learning and community happen. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A full-hearted valentine. (Picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Reviews