Read This: Butterflies in My Stomach

I purchased this book, Butterflies in My Stomach (and other school hazards) by Serge Bloch, right about this time last year, before Beeper had his first day of kindergarten.  You see, buying books is an act of celebration for me--sure, I buy them for the unadulterated pleasure of reading them, but they are also like uncorking a bottle of champagne to underscore something simple and good occurring in your life.  Some people eat when they are happy, I buy books (well, okay, I might also order dessert).    Anyway, what I am trying to tell you here is that I bought this book last year in a happy moment, wanting to earmark the transition Beeper was about to make to beginning school.  

It is a sweet but clever story about a little boy's first day of school, told entirely through commonplace idioms that are interpreted literally in simple line drawings mixed with photographic imagery.  Like having butterflies in your stomach...

 

...or being in a real pickle (for missing the school bus, of course).

   

I loved this book.  It not only provided a venue for Beeper and I to talk about his first day of school and being nervous about it, but we also discussed the real meanings of the metaphors used in the book.  He loved that and found so many of them hilarious in that way 5-years-olds do--like having ants in your pants or opening a can of worms.

  

And I have to admit that Beeper had a bit of a rough transition to his new school (strong emotional attachments to his pre-school were not easily left behind for him--and I so understand.  I was completely like that as a kid)--so we came back to this book many times over the month after he started kindergarten.  And he actually used one of the sayings in the book to describe how he felt--he was blue.

  

Anyway, this is a lovely and original book.  We still revisit from time to time even though that school transition is done now.  And I still hear him using the phrases from the book now and again (or sometimes mixing them up and telling me that he has bugs in his stomach).