Newbery Medal winner Sharon Creech delivers A SMART, SMART SCHOOL, the follow-up to the bestselling and perennial favorite A FINE, FINE SCHOOL. This special companion picture book will welcome Creech fans and new readers alike into to that world.
A SMART, SMART SCHOOL
by Sharon Creech
illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan
HarperCollins, June 2023
(via Writers House)
A SMART, SMART SCHOOL delivers a timely message about the importance of creativity and artistic expression in education. In this picture book, the principal, Mr. Keene, runs a fine, fine school. He encourages his students to express themselves through the creative arts: drawing, painting, reading and singing. Then, Mr. Keene’s appendix bursts, and he is rushed to the hospital.
A new principal named Mr. Tatters arrives to take his place, and he is a serious man. He does not smile, he does not laugh, disapproves of their creative methods of learning, and immediately implements a policy of daily tests, banning songs, flowers, and fun! Soon the students tire of constant test-taking, and the teachers grow too fatigued to grade any more tests. Thankfully, Mr. Keene heals and when he returns, he encourages his students to balance their creativity with their learning. At the end of the story he places a banner outside of the school that reads: A SMART, SMART SCHOOL.
Sharon Creech has written twenty-one books for young people and is published in over twenty languages. She received the Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, the Newbery Honor for The Wanderer, and Great Britain’s Carnegie Medal for Ruby Holler.