The first day of school is tomorrow, and Elmo Freem’s mom takes him to Mr. Kleeg, the barber, for a haircut. The haircut is awful! Not even a baseball hat could cover the problem. He was nervous about what the kids at school would say, especially his best friend Buford. He finds a stocking cap to wear as a temporary solution. To keep the morning from coming, Elmo tries to stay up all night with his cat Leon, watching movies. When Elmo and Leon go into the kitchen for a snack, they find two space monsters. The space monsters also think that Elmo’s haircut is atrocious, so they decide to take Elmo and Leon to their planet so that he can see Moog-Moog, the finest barber in the universe. They land on planet Moogie, a small green planet that reminded Elmo a lot like Earth. Moog’s barbershop was located at the top of a hill in a huge green castle. Moog-Moog had pointed teeth and a head of hair that changed colors as he moved. Moog worked on Elmo’s hair for hours, using every tool he could find. Finally, he gave up, defeated. Elmo was encouraging, and the two monsters took them back home, arriving only a few minutes after they had left. The next morning, Elmo met up with Buford, who was wearing a silly cap similar to Elmo’s. Mr. Kleeg had given them both awful haircuts. They walked to school together, talking about everything except haircuts!
Students can relate to Elmo. Everyone, at some point, has been nervous to come to school for fear of what their peers might say. This might be a good book to read at the beginning of the year, when students are most anxious about school. You can have the students think of a specific time, and write about it. Have them include a fun, elaborate solution to their problem, like Elmo and his space aliens! For example, if a student spills something on their shirt on the bus ride to school, they could write a story about how the bus takes them to a place where everyone spills things everywhere! You can have students come together and read their stories aloud. In doing so, you can allow students to laugh about the things that would originally have made them self-conscious.
