When Thomas starts school in his village in Chad, the first lesson the children learn is how to make the mud bricks to build the school room. Bit by bit they build the school, and then the traditional learning can begin. James Rumford based his story on a town he visited while serving in the Peace Corps in Chad, where the mud-brick school was washed away during the summer’s rainy season. His brightly colored pastel illustrations show the difference between the dry and rainy seasons by using gold and orange hues in the winter and grays and blues for the rainy season. The art also captures the eagerness of the school’s young students, who are learning to read. (Age 4–7)