100th Day Worries

It's a first-grade worrywart's worst nightmare: On the 95th day of class, poor Jessica and her fellow classmates are told to bring in a collection of "100" items to celebrate the 100th day of school. Jessica wracks her brain over possibilities--"100 ice cubes? too melty…100 marshmallows? too sticky…100 toothpicks? too pointy"--discarding one idea after another, before desperately turning to her family for help at the zero hour. In this iconographic adaptation of the children's picture book 100th Day Worries, written by Margery Cuyler and illustrated by Arthur Howard, young viewers are served up an elementary math lesson (counting to 100 by groups of 10) on a bed of nail-biting suspense, garnished with a dash of maternal, paternal and sibling love. Unfortunately, the message here is somewhat overshadowed by a negative stereotypical behavior that hardly needs reinforcing: the fact is that Jessica waits to the last minute (nervous indecisiveness notwithstanding) and then essentially stands back while her mom, dad and siblings do almost all the work. An optional purchase. Aud: K, E, P. (R. Pitman)