Monkey Time
by Michael Hall
Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), 2019. 48 pages.
Starred Review
Review written March 9, 2019, from a library book
Here’s what I like about this picture book: You can use it in multiple ways.
On the highest level, you can use it to teach children to tell time. There are “minutes” lined up around the tree like a clock. Diagrams in the back show what it looks like for all the multiples of 10 minutes up to 60. Twelve branches on the tree are positioned like the numbers on an analog clock.
There are also some rain forest animals pictured. They are named at the back.
You can also use this book to practice counting – all the way to 60. Or to count by tens.
But I’ve got a Mother Goose Storytime for babies on Pi Day this year – and I think I’m going to use this book on the very simplest level – as words that are fun to say. It will introduce them to the idea of a clock while I’m at it.
Here’s how the book begins (over several pages):
Psst! Wake up, Monkey!
It’s time to play.Wheee! I bet you can’t
catch a minute, Monkey.Chase me over.
Chase me down.
Chase me all the way around.
Faster, Monkey, faster.Hop! Pop!
Ha-ha. You missed me.
Little round “minutes” keep running around the tree, and Monkey keeps trying to catch them. The tree fills up when sixty minutes have come out. (Don’t worry, the text doesn’t closely follow all sixty minutes.)
This clever little picture book reminds me of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by personifying a concept and making a story with them that’s fun to say.
A simple and fun way to introduce the concept of telling time.
michaelhallstudio.com
harpercollinschildrens.com
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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