The first in Menucha Fuchs’ new Smile With Avi­gay­il series, this easy-to-read chap­ter book with col­or­ful illus­tra­tions is a nice choice for begin­ning read­ers. The sto­ry begins when Avi­gay­il and her friends want to play school, but they can­not decide who will be the teacher and who will be the stu­dents. So they all decide to be the teach­ers, and after a short search, they per­suade Avigayil’s lit­tle broth­er Avi to be their stu­dent. Their game pro­gress­es, and we see that Avi is not as into the game as his sis­ter and her friends, nor does he quite under­stand what is expect­ed of him. We slow­ly see Avi­gay­il devel­op into the voice of rea­son after her friend repeat­ed­ly states that Avi should be pun­ished because he is not lis­ten­ing to the teach­ers. Avi­gay­il under­stands that her broth­er is young, and does not quite under­stand ​“the ways of the world,” and she is, as a result, tru­ly able to teach to her friends the very impor­tant midot of shar­ing, under­stand­ing one anoth­er and coop­er­a­tion. Over­all, this is an engag­ing first chap­ter book that also con­veys valu­able life lessons to young read­ers. Ages 6 – 8.