The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

McNaughton, Colin

Once upon an Ordinary School Day

32 pp. | Farrar | March, 2005 | Trade ISBN 0-374-35634-3 $16.00

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura. In this parable of the awakening imagination, an "ordinary boy woke from his ordinary dreams...had an ordinary pee...and ate his ordinary breakfast." At school a colorful new teacher demands that the class listen to music and record what they imagine. While the art bursts into joyful color, the boy begins to write; "and he was lost, lost in...the storytelling game. And it was extraordinary."

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005