Forever or a Day

PreS-Gr 2—The mercurial nature of time's passage is noticeable even to young children, who sense the difference between the spans of the approach of something dreaded (bedtime) and something eagerly awaited (a birthday). Jacoby's explication of time's slipperiness ranges from a poetic "quick as a heartbeat skip hello" to a prosaic "sometimes it helps the bus arrive." Her watercolor and pastel illustrations also switch moods. Whimsical figures gain detail through flicks of her paintbrush while expansive landscapes glow in layered applications of colors. A spread depicts groupings of passengers on a train and the text simultaneously conveys the rhythm of their heartbeats and the wheels over the tracks, "ba dum, ba dum, ba dum." A succession of panels shows the construction and erosion of a sandcastle. This is a book that bears repeated readings. Its treasures reveal themselves on close examination and its subject matter is, of course, profound.