Children will feel Chrysanthemum's despair, and her hope that each day will be better, and author Keving Henkes takes care that the teasing students are won over, not put down.

Parents and perceptive children will enjoy Henkes's wordplay. Her father is a walking thesaurus, sprinkling synonyms that follow her mother's adjectives: When her mother says, "Your name is beautiful," he follows with, "And precious and priceless and fascinating and winsome."

Watercolor-and-ink illustrations capture Chrysanthemum's moods and the superior attitude of the other mice children at school. One page contains sixteen portraits and the names of each of the students written in their individual handwriting. Another shows the worried father surreptitiously reading a book titled The Inner Mouse, Volume One: Childhood Anxiety.

A different first day of school is experienced in Amanda Pig, Schoolgirl, by Jean Van Leeuwen. School is fun for Amanda, and the cheerful pig soon helps a shy girl enjoy school as well.