This should not be sold as a school backpack. It barely holds my son's lunchbox. He can use it this year in preschool, but it will be too small even for what they need for kindergarten.
I had mistakenly believed that these junior backpacks would be the same quality as the backpack I had carried in college. Wow was I wrong.
The fabric feels cheap and the zippers broke off after one month.
Further - I guess no one in the LL Bean department actually has a preschooler. If they did, they would've added a logical place for a sippy cup, like an elasticized pocket on the side.
We have two of these bags in our household. My oldest daughter got hers for preschool. This is her fourth year with the bag. Two years of preschool, kindergarten, and now first grade! This bag hold her normal size 3 ring binder along with her "stuff"! This bag is in great shape and still looks new! She even uses it for all trips. My 3 y/o daughter just got hers for preschool and loves it! The teachers like it since we had her name put on it. She always knows her bag, because she can recognize her name!
My 4-year-old son has been wearing his book pack jr to preschool since the beginning of the semester. It fits him perfectly. He can put it on easily and the little ties on the zippers help him open it easily, too. The pack is roomy enough for some spare clothes and his school projects, and I can see I'll have room for a lunch bag when he goes to kindergarten. I opted for the monogram and it looks great.
I really dig the reflective strip on the back. That's a big plus in my book. I also like the oversize loop at the top, which makes it easy for him to hang his pack on his hook at school and again when he gets home. And that's what makes this bag so great: he can do everything he needs to do with it (put it on, open/close it, and hang it up) by himself.
