Author: Peggy Rathmann

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Pub. in: September, 2001

ISBN: 0399237704

Pages: 21

Measurements: 7.7 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BC00271

Other information: Board edition

This book combines a number of familiar motifs: Animals that may or may not be imaginary (visible only to the boy protagonist, but not to his father), counting between 1 and 10, lots of detailed background activity, self-referential humor, fantasy spinning off of the mundane, and an exciting conclusion hinging on whether the boy will get to bed on time.

The surface plot is simple: A father immersed in his paper announces that it's 10 minutes until the boy's bedtime, and counts down the remaining time each minute. Rathmann takes it much further than this though. For some reason, the boy's real hamster advertises a "10-minute bedtime tour" in the local paper. The hamster’s arrival coincides with the 10-minutes in which the boy must get ready for bed. For the rest of the story, the pet hamster echoes the father's countdown, and the guest hamsters follow the boy around as he brushes his teeth, goes on the "potty," reads a story, etc. The echoes reverberate like two facing mirrors. Not only do the hamsters recapitulate the father and son's activities, but also the boy becomes his own doppelganger. On page 22 (four minutes to go), you see him looking over his chair at the scores of newly arrived hamsters in his bedroom, holding this book turned to page 22. More and more hamsters arrive, practically filling the bathtub, and they cluster in groups dancing in hulas, laying in deck chairs, water-skiing, and boating. The whole book seems close to exploding with hamster tourists, until a gigantic shout of "Bedtime!" shakes them off the rafters and out of the house.

This is an ambitious book with mixed results. The illustrations are wonderful, luminous, colorful, and with good separation of foreground and background. Rathmann's pictures of the ever-increasing hamsters are convincing, and their adaptation of human activities is funny and recognizable despite the miniature scale. Overall, if your child enjoys abstract fantasy, animals, and slightly busy books with lots of tiny activities on every page, this book may become a favorite.

Target readers: Baby-Preschool

Better with Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed :

			2 Buy with : ¥ 176.00
			Quantity:  +112345678910