Caterpillar Kisses: Lessons My Kindergarten Class Taught Me About Life
by
Christine Pisera Naman
Order:
USA
Can
Doubleday, 2005 (2005)
Hardcover
Reviewed by Hilary Williamson
I
n
Caterpillar Kisses
, Christine Pisera Naman shares twelve lessons she learned in kindergarten, one for each month of the year; lessons that her five-year-old students taught her, as these wiggling, wriggling little caterpillars gradually morphed into '
baby butterflies
', to fly off into grade one.
T
hese vignettes about kindergarten life and times include the transformation of an excess of teacher's apples into '
Apple Pie Friday
'; a little boy who chooses an unusual figure to emulate for Halloween (the nuns disapprove); a reading circle that moves to enclose and include a shy child; a Christmas pageant; dealing with death; a literal interpretation of '
Marching in the Other Guy's Shoes
'; and a reluctant dad who wins enthusiastic fans, including his own son, on a school outing.
N
aman sums up the kindergarten experience for a future student, '
First you'll color an apple, then you'll paste a turkey, next you'll glitter a Christmas tree, after that you'll draw a snowflake, then you'll cut a heart, after that you'll trace a shamrock, then you'll paint raindrops, next you'll glue flowers, and then you'll write good-bye.
' Whether you're a parent or an educator,
Caterpillar Kisses
will remind you how engagingly innocent those small wrigglers are.
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