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10 Minutes till Bedtime (039923103X)
Description
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| "Ten minutes till bedtime!" Father announces from behind his newspaper. Out a picture window, his son and his son's pet hamster can see a hamster family (with kids numbered 1 to 10) approaching the house. "All aboard!" shouts the boy's prized pet, as his puzzled owner opens the door and the hamster tourists are loaded onto the special trolley. What the humans at 1 Hoppin Place don't know is that their cherished family pet has advertised on the Web (www.hamstertours.com) for a "10-Minute Bedtime Tour," and the hordes have only just begun to descend. "Nine minutes till bedtime," Father insists, oblivious to the burgeoning hamster parade. At the 8-minute marker, the hamsters and the boy are in the kitchen for a pre-bedtime snack. One little guy is standing on top of a fruit bowl, lowering a cherry cluster with a string and paper clip. Hamster number 10 is trying to feed an animal cracker to the boy's fuzzy bedroom slipper. "Seven minutes till bedtime!" reminds Father as creative tooth-brushing progresses. But what's this? It's the 5-minute countdown marker, and the faint light of hamster headlights appears out the window. More tourists are on their way! Buses, trucks, taxis, and golf carts full of rodents are driving up the sidewalk! Hilarious hamster hijinks ensue. If you're not seeing the appeal here, it's like this: each spread is turbocharged with dozens of winsome, adorable details that will keep youngsters giggling and entranced--and counting to 10--time after time. Peggy Rathmann, author of the Caldecott Medal-winning Officer Buckle and Gloria, offers readers a rollicking rodent romp that ends with a goodnight kiss and many, many closed eyelids. (Click to see a sample spread. Copyright © 1998 Peggy Rathmann, published by Putnam Books, a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.) (Ages 2 to 8) --Karin Snelson Editorial Descriptions are usually submitted by the manufacturers, publishers and authors. Contact us if you are one of them, and wish to change the above description. |
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Author: Guest
I got this book for my 2.5 years old nephew. We had a great time reading it and he begged for it each day. The book does not have a lot of text, but the pictures are truly worth a thousand words. There's a lot going on in each page; which makes for a fun time discussing all the things going on. I highly recommend it.
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Author: Guest
Peggy Rathman has a knack for knowing what will keep a small child interested. The very detailed drawings are full of things to find on every page (where are the hamsters numbered 1-10?). If you have other books by her you will see little drawings borrowed from those books. My 5-year-old loves it.
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Author: Guest
Peggy Rathmann is the author and illustrator of "Goodnight Gorilla-her masterpiece-as well as several other highly acclaimed books (e.g., "Officer Buckle and Gloria," "The Day the Babies Crawled Away"). 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 (with humorous stories on it) 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 hamsters 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. He's shown reading a book--this book, "10 Minutes Till Bedtime." 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 (including the signature lamppost), 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 (traveling in campers made out of oatmeal boxes, taking pictures, riding a toy train, etc.) is funny and recognizable despite the miniature scale. Still, it's a very busy book, and the crescendo of hamster-mania is not exactly calming (although the humor is). It's also a bit difficult to explain how this all happens. You can either go with the "it's just his imagination" angle, or you can say these are things that only children can see, or you can just ignore plausibility altogether and hope your child does too. What's somewhat more annoying is Rathmann's self-referential humor, especially the commercialization of the gorilla from "Goodnight Gorilla." If fantasies are inherently valuable, then why must we see the gorilla become the doll property of the boy. Moreover, the drawings of this book inside the book also seem unnecessary and contrived. In a way, this repeated product placement feels more like more self-promotion than the clever or sly touches for which Ms. Rathmann is famous.
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. For me, none of her books rivals the simple, wry humor of "Goodnight, Gorilla." However, Rathmann challenges both herself and her readers with this very interesting excursion. Slightly older kids (say, early elementary school age may enjoy the "Sims"-like quality of the scurrying hamsters, and others may enjoy the "Where's Waldo" detail. There's no trouble finding `Waldo' here: The real or imagined hamsters are here, there, and almost everywhere. The book is nicely produced, with little touches like photos of the "tour" on the inside book covers, and excellent color reproduction.
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Author: Guest
My son must have a hundred books, but you can believe that he reaches for this one first every time. Some nights we have to read it five times before he'll go to bed...and he's only a year old. The detail in the pictures is unmatched; it seems like every time I read it to him I notice something different. He must too, because he will point to different things each time. Because there aren't too many words, it allows me to change the story each time, which really amuses my son. Not for those who just want to read to their kids without having to think...this book requires a little creativity on the part of the reader.
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Author: Guest
WHY IS EVERYONE GIVING THIS BOOK 5 STARS??? THERE ARE SO MANY OTHER BOOKS MORE DESERVING OF A 5 STAR RATING- THE GRUFFALO, KING BIDGOODS IN THE BATHTUB, OWEN...
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