First Concepts : Time

Children's Literature

The concept of time can be difficult to understand. The basics of morning, mealtime and nighttime can be grasped fairly early by young children, but the use of a clock and telling time is much more difficult. The front end papers show clock faces with each hour noted. The simple times such as wake up and breakfast are illustrated on interior pages when the flaps are lifted. The egg shown at breakfast time, when opened, lists a variety of foods that one might eat at that time of day. The hours are never mentioned or depicted on the clock face. After moving through the routines of a day, the young reader is taken through the days of the week, then the months of the year and finally the seasons. That is a lot to pack into a short book and a lot to absorb and understand without a great deal of adult intervention. There are no smooth transitions—weeks make up months, months make up the seasons—it is all implied. The end pages show the clock faces and also feature a clock with moveable hands. But just how one is supposed to use it in conjunction with the text is a bit of a mystery, since times are not associated with any of the activities depicted in the book. 2002, St. Martin's Press,
— Marilyn Courtot