Olu’s Teacher
Jamel C. Campbell and Lydia Mba
Walker Books

Understandably Olu is very nervous about starting nursery school. His Dad reminds him that his friends Akeem and Sarah will be there, but what about the teacher? As he contemplates this new person, imagining all kinds of scary possibilities, he suddenly says, “MACARONI!” This is the word Olu uses when he’s really nervous. His worries get the better of him several times despite the reassurances from his Dad and Mum; and they reach the nursery building all too soon for our little narrator. However, it’s a really warm, friendly face that greets him and introduces himself as ‘Jay”. When Jay smiles he shows his shiny gold tooth, which he does all the way to the classroom. Once there he invites Olu to sit with his friends and make some pictures.

Mum gives her son a goodbye hug and departs leaving him in Jay’s care.
Olu could not have had a better teacher that Jay: he plays the boy’s favourite reggae music on his guitar

and at story time, dons a special cape before sharing a book with the children. Olu is surprised at how quickly the session has gone and it’s time to leave. Before so doing, however, a realisation dawns: Jay actually looks like Olu – another reason he’s eagerly anticipating returning to nursery the next day.

A smashing, hugely reassuring book by a smashing teacher (the author is himself an Early Years educator) and as he writes after the story, he knows that starting nursery is one of the big, and most important, transitions in a child’s life and it’s vital everything possible is done to ensure that for every child, it’s a positive one. Lydia Mba’s illustrations of the diverse community Olu joins when he starts nursery certainly make it look an exciting, enabling place to be.