Ah, the transition back to school-is there anything quite like that mix of fun and fear? For any child who may be feeling some school trepidation, give one of these books a try.

Superhero School by Aaron Reynolds. Leonard has heat vision and can hit a baseball into orbit. Where does such a kid go to school? Superhero School, of course! Yet when he arrives at superhero school, Leonard is disappointed to discover that his teacher, The Blue Tornado, is only teaching fractions and multiplication and division, instead of more useful things like vanquishing evil robots. When the ice zombies kidnap the teachers, though, Leonard and his classmates discover how those skills can really come in handy.

Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton. Splat lays in bed, wide awake, and his tail wiggles wildly with worry for his first day of Cat School. He simply doesn’t want to go, so he takes his mouse friend, Seymour, with for moral support. Splat learns all the things that cats do-including chase mice! But Splat and Seymour give his cat classmates a reason to change their mouse-chasing tune. By the end of the story, Splat’s tail wiggles wildly… with excitement. He can’t wait to go back to Cat School.

I Don’t Want to Go to School by Stephanie Blake. Much like Splat, Simon the rabbit has a lot of worry built up for his first day of school. He also lies awake, turning the lights on and off, alternately thinking “I’m scared!” and “I’m not scared!” He doesn’t want to go, greeting every question with a “No way!” But when he gives school a try and sees how much fun he can have, when it comes time to go home he says, “No way!”

Emily’s First 100 Days of School by Rosemary Wells. This delightful book isn’t just a great book about all the things that happen at school and at home during Emily’s school year, it’s also a superb counting book. There are lovely numbered details like Emily writing her name in 14 different colors, 28 peas in the jello cup (yuck!), and 63 hellos on the school bus as well as useful conversions like 25 pennies in a quarter and 60 minutes in an hour.

These books are a great way to talk with your kids about all of the things that happen at school: the good, the bad, and the ugly.