Book Pick—A Second Is a Hiccup: A Child's Book of Time by Hazel Hutchins, illus. by Kady MacDonald Denton

From SLJ March 2007 (Starred Review)

Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada -- School Library Journal, 2/20/2007

HUTCHINS, Hazel. A Second Is a Hiccup: A Child's Book of Time. illus. by Kady MacDonald Denton. unpaged. CIP. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Bks. Mar. 2007. RTE $16.99. ISBN 978-0-439-83106-2. LC 2006007561.

PreS-Gr 2–The abstract concept of time is explained in child-friendly terms: "A second is a hiccup–/The time it takes to kiss your mom/Or jump a rope/Or turn around." A minute is long enough to "sing just one small song," and in an hour, you could build a sandcastle, run through a sprinkler, climb a tree, and play pretend. A day "needs filling, like a cup," and a week is explained as "Seven wake-ups, seven sleeps." In a month, a scraped shin will heal with "brand-new skin," and by the end of a year, "You'll grow right out of your old shoes." Denton's charming watercolor-and-ink vignettes, showing three friends interacting with one another and with their families, celebrate their joys and accomplishments with warmth and affection. The lyrical, rhyming text answers deceptively simple childhood questions with great flair.

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