Marshall Armstrong is new to our school by David Mackintosh
HarperCollins, 2011. ISBN 9780007361410.
Picture book. Highly recommended. When new boy, Marshall Armstrong
comes to the classroom, the teacher sits him in the front with a class
member until he finds his feet. But Marshall is different. The
classmate is suspicious of his equipment laid out on the desk.
Marshall's box of pens, his ink pen, rubber bands, several rulers,
slide rule, compass and bull dog clip, contrast wildly with his
neighbour's single small pencil and folder of paper. The next page
underlines the differences even more. The classmate points out his eyes
that always look to the front, the shell like ear, freckles like bird
seed and his tidy shoelaces, all adding up, in his mind, to a huge
difference between the children in the class. These differences are
further underscored when the children go outside the classroom. Here
Marshall does not involve himself in games, and eats the oddest of
food, each in its own labelled container. The neighbour concludes that
Marshall does not fit into their school.
When the class is invited along to Marshall's place to celebrate his
birthday, the classmate predicts that everyone will have a horrible
time. But the party is different with all the class having the wildest
of times, playing hide and seek, making lemonade, playing with the
train set and opening a pinata. As a consequence the class mate changes
his mind about Marshall, saying how great he is. The next new person to
come to the class is welcomed.
A lovely story about fitting in, about welcoming people and about
acceptance of difference is beautifully told and illustrated in David
Mackintosh's distinctive style. His seemingly quick pencil sketches are
filled in with colour and vitality, while each double page spread gives
the reader a different view of what is going on. I love the double page
of Marshall's things, the collection of bits and pieces redolent of
times past, fitting in so well with the drawing of Marshall himself,
with straw hat and round glasses.
Fran Knight