(2) PS Illustrated by Leah Hong. The passage of time can seem painfully slow to young children who haven't yet mastered how to measure hours, days, weeks, months, or years. This is especially true when a child is waiting for something to happen after a certain duration of time. In Conklin's text, a little girl awaits her mother's return from a weeklong business trip. Her father and baby sibling are home with her, and they cross off days on a calendar and fill their time with trips to the local pool and with window shopping in town. Throughout, Hong's watercolors create a reassuring depiction of the child's family and environment, with a calming, cool palette of mostly blue and green settings and soft, rounded forms. This comforting visual atmosphere is reassuring as the girl repeatedly appears dejected despite her father's loving care. While anticipating her mom's return is her main concern, other kinds of waiting underscore her longing. Standing in line at the pool or bemoaning how long it takes to get big enough to ride a two-wheeler, she often pulls on her father's arm, as if willing him to change his pace would hurry time along. Small pleasures punctuate the waiting time, and the family's joyful reunion provides a satisfying conclusion, augmented by a new bicycle as the cherry on top of this sweet story.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Nicole Wong. This humorous folktale adaptation explains why the Chinese calendar uses specific animal names for the twelve years. The emperor, bemoaning that "we cannot recall the years," devises a race--the first twelve animals to finish will have a year named after them. Both text and ornate illustrations give personalities to each of the animals, the emperor, and his devoted advisors.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) K-3 A+ Books Bilingüe: Mídelo / Measure It series. Length and Distance shows Sue measuring her pets, her plant, a truck, the depth of a pool, and her own height. Time explains time measurements as Ann's family prepares to go on vacation. Color photos and text are a little awkward in these otherwise helpful bilingual books. Interesting facts about measurement are appended. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these A+ Books Bilingüe: Mídelo / Measure It titles: ¿Cómo mides le tiempo? / How Do You Measure Time? and ¿Cómo mides la longitud y la distancia? / How Do You Meaure Length and Distance?.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(4) K-3 MathStart series. Illustrated by Marsha Winborn. When Grandma's cat has kittens, Joey and Lisa pick Pepper as their own, and Lisa writes a year's worth of monthly journal entries about Pepper. The colorful illustrations are busy with details, holiday references, and facts about cats, which may overshadow the concept at hand. Included at the end of the book are a year's calendar and suggestions for parents to help clarify the concept of time.

Reviewer: Liza Woodruff

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Megan Halsey. Enticing, child-centered reasons for learning to tell time ("to know when our friends are coming over" or "so we won't miss our favorite TV show") lure readers into a lengthy description of time units and a series of exercises in reading digital and analog clocks. Cartoon illustrations in gouache and pen and ink are colorful and an integral part of the overly perky, lesson-like text.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Giulio Maestro. Geared specifically for the advent of the new millennium, this overview of timekeeping begins with prehistoric "calendar sticks" and stone structures, and continues through today's ultra-precise atomic clocks. The text takes a broad multicultural approach, showing how science, history, and societal differences have influenced the calendar; the color illustrations are executed in styles that match the eras and cultures discussed in the volume. Ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta