Belonging & being new · Text Set

You are the teacher.

You know your students and what they need today.

Use what works. Change what doesn’t. Make it yours.

Being new is the most reliable shared experience in a primary classroom, and it is not one thing. This set separates it out: nerves, trying too hard, being unsure of someone else, hiding on purpose, being shut out for how you look, and hiding the thing that makes you worth knowing. It opens on a joke and closes on a child putting her light back on.

The question that runs through all six

Is it the room that has to change, or you?

Standards status

This curated reading sequence is not itself a region-specific standards claim. Review the documentary status on any linked lesson plan.

Set worksheet (PDF) — the worksheet is one row per book, filled in after each one.

The sequence

Start here, for the twist.

First Day Jitters

Book ID 4532

Julie Danneberg

Gr K-3FictionTL05350L5 min

Sarah will not get out of bed, cannot face the new school, is talked round by everyone — and turns out to be the teacher. Five minutes, and the reveal resets who in the room is allowed to be nervous.

AskEveryone assumed Sarah was a child. Why did the book let you assume that?

Now trying much too hard.

Ira Crumb Makes a Pretty Good Friend

Book ID 7430

Naseem Hrab

Gr K-2FictionTL08AD490L5 min

Ira Crumb decides to earn friends before school starts by proving how trustworthy and fun he is, and it goes hilariously wrong — including a long exchange with a sandwich. Being new as an effort problem rather than a sadness one.

AskIra's plan fails completely. What actually works in the end?

Now from the other side.

Oddrey and the New Kid

Book ID 7041

Dave Whamond

Gr K-2FictionTL08AD660L5 min

Audrey already likes being herself, and it is the new girl, Maybelline, who may be exaggerating her way in. The only book here told by the child who was already there — which is most of the class.

AskMaybelline stretched the truth to fit in. What was she afraid would happen if she did not?

Now hiding on purpose.

Jordan and Max Showtime

Book ID 8258

Suzanne Sutherland

Gr 1-3FictionTL08800L

Jordan has spent years working at being invisible to avoid teasing, and is paired with Max, who wants nothing but attention. Being new is no longer the problem; being seen is.

AskJordan wants to disappear and Max wants to shine. Which one is more afraid?

Now shut out for how she looks.

Lila and the Crow

Book ID 7094

Gabrielle Grimard

Gr K-2FictionTL08AD610L7 min

Lila is excluded in her new city for her dark hair, skin and eyes, and a crow keeps turning up until she follows it. The book where the problem is unmistakably the room's and not the child's.

AskLila did nothing differently. So what has to change here?

End with the light back on.

Superluminous

Book ID 7719

Ian De Haes

Gr K-2FictionAD610L7 min

Nour is born glowing, is made to feel that her difference is not a real superpower, and hides it under heavy clothes — until she works out what the light is for. The right ending because it is the only book where the child gets to keep the thing that made her a target.

AskShe could have stayed covered up and been left alone. Why is that not the happy ending?

Also in the collection

A Thousand White ButterfliesBook ID 7956A girl newly arrived from Colombia, and a snow day that rescues her.

Beatrice More Moves InBook ID 7116A perfection-obsessed girl who moves house and cannot keep it spotless.

Ira Crumb Feels the FeelingsBook ID 7370Ira Crumb again, this time on being left out by the friend he has.

Dear BaobabBook ID 7767A boy who misses his baobab and adopts a spruce to talk to.

Teaching this set

Book 3 is the one that changes the discussion. Five of these are told by the new child. Oddrey and the New Kid is told by the one who was already there — which is the position most of the class is actually in. Ask them, after that book, what Audrey should have done on Maybelline's first morning.

Five of the six run five to seven minutes. This works as a first-fortnight-of-term set, one a day, while the room is still sorting itself out.