Bear Against Time
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
Readers can learn how to tell time and why it matters with this cleverly humorous new picture book from the best-selling creators of 365 Penguins.
Bear can’t tell time and it’s causing chaos for the human family he lives with. He botches breakfast, he’s late for school, he swaps music with gym class, and he misses lunch, too. When his time-management skills land him in a sticky situation, the family decides enough is enough. Using a 12-piece pizza pie, they teach Bear how to read a clock. Suddenly, time is on Bear’s side: he’s punctual, aces his classes, and fills his schedule with volunteer work and sports practices. But it isn’t long before this bear begins to burn out....
Jean-Luc Fromental’s engaging writing and Joëlle Jolivet’s signature retro design combine in this lighthearted and accessible book on the importance and how-tos of telling time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Because Bear can't decipher analog time, he's late for school each day and shows up for band practice dressed for gym; when he misses breakfast and lunch, he raids a bakery, and Bear's human parents, who are white, "have to pay for the meringues, eclairs, and tarts." ("I was very hungry," says Bear.) Bear's frustrated father mandates an intensive weekend workshop on telling time, and the pedagogical hook—clock as pizza with 12 equal slices—is so successful (readers having their own struggles will want to take note) that "hours and minutes no longer hold any secrets." In fact, Bear now lives a life that's as rigorously overscheduled as any human kid's. Even households dominated by digital clocks will find that time flies with the frequent collaborators (365 Penguins): Fromentalcontributes droll narration in an uncredited translation from the French, and Jolivet adds comically chaotic slice-of-life cartooning, including a Dali-inspired dream replete with pizza clocks. An antic fable of learning that ends, wisely and sweetly, with an argument for living beyond the clock. Ages 6–8.
