Happy Miss America Day!
Today is Miss America Day. And, nothing against the Miss America beauty pagent, but I want to share some other famous Misses in children’s picture books.
Miss Nelson, Miss Bindergarten, Miss Rumphius, and Miss Spider just to name a few.
Miss Nelson is Missing! written by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall (1985)
The students in Room 207 were the worst behaved class in the whole school. Their teacher, Miss Nelson, tries everything she can think of to get control of her class. Finally, she calls on the help of the substitute teacher, Miss Viola Swamp, the meanest teacher ever. The kids had never worked harder in their lives. Days went by and the kids were frantic. They went to the police station looking for their teacher. They even went to Miss Nelson’s house… but they saw Miss Swamp coming around the corner. They worried that something terrible had happened to Miss Nelson. Finally, one day Miss Nelson returned to school. The students were so excited to have her back that they were extra well-behaved. And Miss Nelson was happy to be back as well. The kids (and the police) never really knew what had happened to Miss Nelson, but she hummed a little song as she took off her coat at home that night, and hung it up next to an ugly black dress.
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten written by Joseph Slate and illustrated by Ashley Wolff (2007)
Miss Bindergarten is a wonderful border collie who teaches twenty-six kindergarteners. As each of her kindergarteners gets ready for school, in alphabetical order, their teacher Miss Bindergarten prepares her classroom. Just as the last student finds his chair, Miss Bindergarten greets her class with a cheery “Good morning, kindergarten” and the fun begins!
Miss Spider’s Tea Party written and illustrated by David Kirk (2007)
Miss Spider has a terrible time getting guests to stay for tea. Two timid beetles, three fireflies, and four bumblebees all ran away from Miss Spider. She did find five friendly faces, but they belonged to rubber bugs. Poor Miss Spider couldn’t entice six ants or seven butterflies to come for tea. She set out eight place settings, but no one came. Nine moths flew away and Miss Spider cried as she set down ten steaming cups of tea. And then she found one frightened moth whose wings were too wet to fly away. She served this little wet moth tea and pie until his wings dried and then helped him fly away. He told all the others about Miss Spider’s kindness and pretty soon her reputation spread. Before long every bug who crawled, or hopped, or flew stopped in for a visit and a cup of tea.
Miss Rumphius written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney (1985)
Read the full review of the book and learn about the real Miss Rumphius HERE.
Juliana Lee 
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