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Loading... Around the Clockby Roz Chast
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"Do you ever wonder what your friends, enemies, brothers, sisters, and children are doing in the hours when you're not there? This kooky 24-hour tour of a day in the life of 23 different children will reveal answers you'd never expect"-- No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)436Language German and Germanic [Formerly "Prosody"; No longer used]LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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For example, Chast writes:
"From 6 to 7,
Pete is up,
drinking from
his favorite cup.”
What’s hilarious though is the picture that accompanies this short verse. Chast uses ink-and-watercolor cartoon illustrations throughout the book to augment the text. Pete has pretty much destroyed the kitchen while his apparently still-sleeping parents have no idea what he is doing.
Then there is another scene cringingly familiar to many parents:
"From 3 to 4,
in the grocery store,
Ann throws a tantrum
on the floor.”
Again, the picture is a riot, showing other people scowling or laughing or just happy it is someone else’s child and not theirs.
Kids will laugh out loud at many of the rhymes:
"From 7 to 8
is bath time for Shelley.
If you don’t take a bath,
you will get very smelly.”
The picture contains very funny thought balloons about the smells.
Evaluation: Roz Chast, both author and illustrator, is the beloved staff cartoonist for the “New Yorker,” and also the author/illustrator of a number of books for children. Her children tend not to be well-behaved role models, nor do they learn any lessons in the short time we spend with them in books, but they are as realistic as can be, and will delight and divert readers of all ages. The grown-ups are also very amusing and believable (read: not perfect), rather than the endlessly patient, loving parents we usually see in picture books for kids.
Once again as with Chast's previous books, some reviewers deplored these aspects of Chast’s books. Some even complained the pictures were “scary.” Really? Did they never read Maurice Sendak? ( )