Eighteen funny and imaginative poems observe students in their natural habitat and reveal their unusual behavior, crazy communication, and robust appetites. Whether they're in the classroom, on the playground, or in the cafeteria, school brings out the animal in all of them.

Teaching guide, Readers Theater scripts, and more available at www.stampedebook.com.

REVIEW

"No need to visit the zoo to see animals, young scholars"just look at your classmates. From the buzzing “bees” swarming over the playground to the starving pre-lunch “bear” with the rumbling tummy and the “blazing / cardinal, / winging / away” from the rumor of a crush, school is well populated with wild creatures. Salas captures 18 of them in very short, first-person rhymes, and like fugitives from The Island of Dr. Moreau, the children in Salerno’s supple, loosely drawn cartoon illustrations sport an array of evocative animal ears, tails, patterned clothes, and altered facial features. The wild verses are positively shot through with simile and metaphor, and young readers will run just as rampant, flocking to these pitch-perfect portrayals of their peers and selves. Grades 1-3." -- Booklist

Reviewed by: --John Peters, Booklist
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