First Grade Blues captures the excitement and anxiety that comes along with a new school year, a new teacher, and new classmates that pupils and parents alike can relate to. The main character has no desire to be a part of her new first grade classroom. She jots her daily experiences for the first ten days in a journal and wishes that she could go back to kindergarten where life for her was much easier. She confuses D.E.A.R Time with Drop Everything and Rest even though it really means Drop Everything and Read, she thinks the "F" on her spelling test stands for FANTASTIC, and she cannot pronounce her new teacher's name so she just calls her "Ms. Teacher". On day five things start to look up for her when she is put in charge of the "handatizer" well....at least that's what she calls it. Ms. Lovelace begins to build a relationship with her new student and gives her various task that cultivates her independence and ultimately has her not wanting to leave first grade ever!