Note: I received a digital galley of this book through NetGalley. ( )

This book is about a group of students that plan elaborative gifts and games to ensure their teacher will not miss them too much during summer break. This is a perfect end of year book. ( )

For a teacher, the last day of school can be very sad. They think of missing all their students that they have grown so close too throughout the year, teachers really do grow with their students as the year progresses. This short story tells the feeling as it is the last week of school and everyone is starting to feel blue and down. They talk about what they will miss, but also what they are excited about. The students care about their teacher and want to make her feel better. They come up with this wonderful gift to make her, and it makes her feel better. But Mrs. Hartwell was super excited about her vacation once school ended.
Yes it is sad, the end of the year, but we have to know how to deal with that sad feeling. If we do something to help us feel better it can help the feeling go away. Or talking about it, like she talked about it with her students to make sure they felt okay with it all. It's okay to feel sad at times, but when we do its important to figure out what is wrong and doing what is best for you and those around you. ( )

Last day blues is a wonderful book about the last days of school before summer. Last days of school are always bittersweet, you do not want to leave your fiends and classroom but you also do not to do any school work. In the book we see Mrs. Hartwells classroom decide they will get her a gift so that she can remember them over the summer. The are worried she will miss them dearly and cry over lesson plans waiting for them to return the next year. On the last day we see the children eager to give Mrs. Hartwell her gift. As the children leave on the last day they think on how much better she must feel knowing her students will miss her too. What they don't realize is that Mrs. Hartwell is excited school is over. ( )

On the surface, it looks like this book is a simple picture book that isn't any different from other picture books. In reality, this is one of the most well written and illustrated picture books that I have ever read. We can clearly tell that all of the kids and the teacher are sad about school being over, but are still excited for the summer. In order to make themselves ant their teacher feel better, they decide to give their teacher, Mrs. Heeartwell, an end of the year present. The gift from the students ends up being a poem of all the things they will miss about school but making sure to point out that they will miss their teacher the most. This book would be a perfect book to have in an elementary school classroom. Its also fun to see that the students think that their teacher will be reading over lesson plans all summer, assuming that teachers don't have lives and that they are sad when they're not in the presence of students. Thats why i think the last page in the book is so important. It shows kids that teachers are real people and they need breaks and to go on vacations just like everyone else. Just about every student that has to experience a last day of school gets that feeling of sadness when they realize that they won't be seeing the same people and doing the same things every day. This book makes students emotions valid, and i think students need to know that their emotions mean something and to not be afraid to express them. One of the things that stood out in the writing and illustrations is that there was some sort of key or symbol in the words that connected each character name to their picture. When it mentions that a kid having from the monkey bars says something, the reader can visually see which specific character is actually speaking. For me, it helped me turn the book into a mini movie in my head. Any book that has the ability to make me wish it was a movie is a star in my book. ( )