A new school bag is standing by the door and Jake’s tummy feels heavy about it. Tomorrow he starts school — in a classroom where he knows nobody at all.

Every desk already looks taken, and at break time he stands alone at the window with no idea how you start talking to someone you don’t know. Until he notices that Ellie is standing alone at the other window too.

Twelve richly illustrated pages, three or four sentences on each — a bedtime story for children aged 5 to 7 about the first day at school, and about the other child being just as afraid to start as you are.

Story concept and editing: Peter Mráz. The text and illustrations were created under his direction by the artificial intelligence Grok (xAI).