Review: Time for (Earth) School, Dewey Dew!

It’s one thing to feel like an alien on your first day of school. It’s another thing to be one.Click-Clack Waddle-Waddle Dot-Dot Dewey Dew is a shy blue creature whose one enormous eye sheds a few quiet dorfs as his mother flies their spaceship toward Earth. Dewey feels out of place at Ms. Brightsun’s School for Little Learners. Earth words feel strange and “hard in his mouth.” The
clothes don’t exactly fit well (“Earth socks drooped around his hunklets!”). And though the kids
are different colors, Dewey is the only blue student there. In the end, a single act of kindness turns his day around. Taking the “new kids at school” experience to an absurd extreme, the amusing text works seamlessly with the artwork, letting the pictures show the meanings of words and phrasesnthat might otherwise be puzzling. The illustrations, created with pencil, watercolor, and digital media, are expressive and engaging.

A fine read-aloud choice, this picture book explores what it
feels like to be the new kid, whatever planet you call home.
— Carolyn Phelan