When You Have to Wait
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A mindful, gentle picture book about patience and learning to find beauty in the act of waiting.
Sometimes, you have to wait.
For the line at the public pool on a hot summer day.
For mom to come home after being away.
For your legs to grow just a bit longer to ride a new big kid bike.
The seconds drag on... each one feels like forever. Why can’t you have it now?
But while you wait, you might notice things: a possible new friend who is also in line, why homecoming hugs are extra special, and how beautiful the world is when you’re not racing by.
Sometimes, when you have to wait, you find the good in the moments between now and later.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Conklin (A Perfect Mistake) and Hong (Happy Dreams, Little Bunny) compassionately limn experiences of childhood longing in an emotionally honest picture book about one of life's truths: "Sometimes, you have to wait." Alongside that refrain, here-and-now language describes the particular discomforts of pauses brief and extensive, including queuing for the pool ("The line is so long, and the sun is so hot"), awaiting a loved one's return ("I need a hug right NOW"), and yearning to fit a too-big bicycle ("Your feet won't reach the pedals,// No matter how hard you try"). Gentle gouache and crayon illustrations depict an East Asian–cued child's relative moment in time via temporal signifiers (a full moon, a calendar). While honoring the child's ardent desires, pages yield surprise treasures of the moment—a new friend met in line, listening to the loved one on the phone, an earthworm spotted from the existing tricycle—until, "finally," the initial scenarios resolve. Smartly using waiting as a means of building the book's narrative tension, the creators offer a mindful route through moments when "each second feels like forever." Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. Illustrator's agent: Kirsten Hall. Catbird Productions.
