“Something for School” starts with a little girl, Yoon off to her first day of kindergarten. Yoon is very sad. Because of her short hair she is mistakenly identified as a boy by her classmates and her teacher and is placed in the wrong group.
This picture book details the little girl’s hard time on the first day of school and how she copes with it and finds ways to make herself feel better and how other kids relate to her feeling and presence.
The illustrations are wonderfully drawn out in detail showing the traditional Korean classroom setting and how the kids would wear uniform slippers in the classroom. On one of the pages, Lee makes good use of the blank space, portraying the anxiety, emptiness and worries of little Yoon who couldn’t find the headdress that she took from her sister to bring to school to show her identity. This book can be appreciated by kids and is a great story to instill in them a sense of care and acceptance.
“Something for School” by Hyun Young Lee. Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2006.
