Title: Mr. S
Author/Illustrator: Monica Arnaldo
Published By: Katherine Tegen Books, 2023

I have to admit something: I’m a huge fan of funny picture books. I know lots of people prefer emotionally resonant ones, or ones that teach lessons or are quiet and peaceful…and I like those ones too. But deep in my heart there lives a little five year old who just wants to read something absolutely silly and hilarious. And this book delivers.

I read it to Lily while we were waiting in the parking lot to see her orthodontist. We were, as usual, fifteen minutes early. I can either be fifteen minutes early or five minutes late, there is no in-between. So I opt for early. I had a large bag of library books sitting in the passenger seat (as you do), and I decided to read them to Lily to pass the time.

This was the favourite.

Mr. S is a totally off-beat story of the first day of school. It features a class of kids who are new to this whole ‘school’ thing. When they arrive in their classroom, it appears their teacher has stepped out. There is, however, a sandwich on the teacher’s desk and a name on the board: “Mr. S.”

It gradually dawns on the students that maybe the sandwich IS their teacher — the ‘S’ stands for Sandwich! Mr. Sandwich! With this in mind, they proceed through their lessons and have quite an enjoyable morning at school.

Throughout the story, we, the reader, can see out the classroom window. We see a man (who, uncoincidentally, was the person who wrote ‘Mr. S’ on the board before leaving in a huge hurry) experiencing a multitude of difficulties in the parking lot (a tree falls on his car, a pizza guy gets his pizzas stolen by raccoons, the car gets struck by lightning…you know, the usual stuff that happens in parking lots). The reader (well, this reader) assumes that the man in the parking lot is the real teacher…

BUT!

When the man eventually reenters the classroom, he introduces himself as Mr. Spencer, the PRINCIPAL. And he introduces the kids to their teacher — Mr. S! The SANDWICH!

Aaaa! You guys, I absolutely laughed out loud when I read this. What a wonderful surprise — the author decided to give in to the craziness of the story and just allow the teacher to be a sandwich. Why not?!

And then, because this story is absolutely hilarious, the second-to-last page has Mr. S correcting the kids — his name isn’t Mr. Sandwich, it’s…

Well, I don’t know what it is. Because on the end pages, we see the staff photos, but Mr. S’ name has been obscured with mustard.

Aside from a really funny story, this book is also full of beautiful art. I really love the style Ms. Arnaldo used when drawing the kids (and sandwich). Their wide-eyed expressiveness suits the story just perfectly!

This book is fantastic. If you’re looking for a really unique ‘first-day-of-school’ book, this is the one. (And, yes, I know we’re much closer to the end of the school year than the beginning, but…well…you can’t always time when you’re going to find an excellent picture book).

Five sandwiches out of five. (Lily says “Five gluten-free sandwiches out of five.” Fair enough.)