The mismatch of expectation and reality can be a hard lesson to learn in first grade. Still Sal is Caldecott Medalist and Newbery Honor author Kevin Henkes's wonderfully warm and authentic novel for newly independent readers. Sal navigates the surprises and disappointments of school with a typical six-year-old's jumble of optimism, anxiety, secrecy, and craftiness.
Sal's visions for first grade are filled with glittery pencils, notebooks printed with baby animals, and her best friend, Griff. The reality is dismayingly different. Her misguided efforts to fix the problem of being in what she considers the wrong classroom only create more stress and keep her from realizing that she might be in the "right place" after all.
Still Sal is a stand-alone companion to Henkes's The Year of Billy Miller, along with Billy Miller Makes a Wish and Oh, Sal. Henkes has a remarkable knack for entering the small but important world of a child and thoughtfully representing the highs and lows and genuine confusion that one tends to forget as an adult. Henkes deftly avoids the pitfall of turning Sal into a precious caricature; she, like most kids, doesn't want adults to think she's cute. She wants her serious feelings of awkwardness, guilt, joy, and the painfully familiar blend of anger and sadness to be taken seriously. Her friends and family offer love, humor, understanding, and occasional obliviousness. Still Sal, with its spunky, determined, funny, and unsentimental protagonist and focus on family, friendship, identity, resilience, and growth, should find a perfect spot on the bookshelf right next to Beezus and Ramona. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor