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School entry represents a key turning point in early childhood and is often referred to as a rite of passage. Most children’s books aim to defuse pupils’ anxiety and the dramatic intensity that surrounds this event by staging and describing a typical first day of school. These books aim at preparing children emotionally before they enter school. They offer a variety of representations of how parent-child separations can be managed, reflecting the status and social construct of emotions associated with this transition. Content analysis of a batch of 158 publications reveals that school entry books distill emotional codes dependent on the children’s background, linked to the scale of cultural legitimacy that governs the editorial landscape. Emotion regulation, elevated to a key competence of pupils, is the core subject of these books and is differently mastered depending on the social recipient, but always at the service of an essential school compliance.