Off to a Flying Start! Back-to-School 2010

(from "Swarm" in Laura Purdie Salas's Stampede!)

If your kids are like ours, they're giddy to be back at school, but jittery about what to expect. There's so much for them to take in and as parents, we want to jump in and make everything go perfectly.

Of course, we have to let our kids feel out a lot of things for themselves. But a little nudge from us -- subtly done -- can go a long way to fuel their confidence and excitement for school.

One of my favorite things is to slip my kids books to ease them into new social situations and make a subject fun. So this fall I've selected 11 books below to help you help your kids feel bright-eyed and happy to learn.

Alphabeasties and other Amazing Types

by Sharon Werner and Sarah Foss

Blue Apple Books, 2009

$19.99, ages 4-8, 56 pages

Gulp. Don't look now. There's an alligator made up of hundreds of letter "A's" swimming across the page.

And isn't that a giraffe shaped by elongated "g's" folding out from the top and bottom of another?

In this clever book, readers visit a zoo of animals made entirely of the first letter of the animal's name and learn to recognize every letter of the alphabet in a variety of typefaces -- from "K's" that look as puffy as clouds to "L's" that twirl like lassos.

Along the way they discover how to turn letters into doodles and practice sounding out the first letters of the names of each drawing.

My favorite alphabet doodles: Using "mm" to make a "moustache" below a balding fellow's nose and "T's" to fill in a boy's mouth with "teeth" (with a few missing in between).

The book ends with an encouraging note to readers to come up with their own typeface and letter animal for the alphabeastie zoo.