This Month · Read Aloud Series: Book Review

Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year

by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2023

Grades K–3 New school Worries and what-ifs The Questioneers
Get the Book
Cover of Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts. Red block letters spell out the title on graph paper. Young Lila in a yellow coat and grown-up Lila in a blue blouse and black skirt stand at the top right with arms crossed, while a row of cheering children jumps across the bottom.
Review by Helina Seyoum
Read Aloud Series

Lila Greer is full of what-ifs. In Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year (Abrams Books for Young Readers), Andrea Beaty follows Lila from second grade all the way to a classroom of her own as an elementary school teacher.

"Her teacher had done what all great teachers do. She'd built a new home, right there in Grade Two."

Andrea Beaty, Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year

Separated from the community where she felt at home, Lila starts second grade feeling alone. Her teacher, Ms. Kern, recognizes this and finds a classroom job for her. That job opens the door for Lila to connect, first with her teacher and then with her classmates, and Ms. Kern teaches her to turn her what-ifs on their head: they can point toward what might go right, too.

What sets this book apart is that the what-ifs come back when Lila steps into her own classroom, and she meets them with the lesson Ms. Kern taught her. Even a future Teacher of the Year has what-ifs on her first day. Teachers: they're just like us! Seeing a grown-up face the same worries they do shows children that these feelings are normal and gives them a strategy they can try themselves. Each what-if is a natural place to pause and ask listeners about their own, and David Roberts's upside-down page lets them feel Lila's unease before the words explain it.

As a parent whose second grader earned the Teacher's Right Hand award, I've seen the joy and pride that helping in her classroom brought my daughter, along with the close bond she built with her teacher. I recommend this book for grades K–3, especially at the start of the school year or when a new student joins the class.

Tips for Reading Aloud

  • Pause at the upside-down page. Turn the book slowly and give students a moment to react before you read on. Ask what the page tells them about how Lila feels.
  • Let your pace follow Lila. Speed up a little as her what-ifs pile up, then slow down once Ms. Kern shares her lesson so students can hear the shift.
  • Watch Lila grow up. Invite students to notice how Lila changes from the first pages to the last, and to look for the moment she becomes the teacher.
  • Model it yourself. Share a recent what-if you had. It's a natural way to show students that grown-ups have these thoughts too.

Discussion Questions

Grades K–1
  1. How does Lila feel when she first arrives at her new school?
  2. How does Ms. Kern help Lila feel at home in her new class?
  3. Who has helped you feel welcome at school? How could you do the same for a classmate?
Grades 2–3
  1. Think of a what-if you've had. How could you turn it into a what-if about something going right?
  2. When Lila becomes a teacher, her what-ifs come back. What helps her this time?

About the Series

Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year is part of Andrea Beaty and David Roberts's Questioneers series, and Lila also appears as the second-grade teacher in Iggy Peck, Architect.