Bear Against Time

December 15, 2020
Grades K-2 Unable to tell time, Bear is always running late. He misses breakfast and classes at school, then is late for the bus and has to walk home. Finally, Bear's human family decides to help him with time management, and his father makes the lesson accessible by drawing a clock face as 12 slices of pizza. Set on mostly white backgrounds and using detailed spot art, thickly colored illustrations with the look of pastels humorously depict Bear's exploits as well as his eventual mastery of the concept. Eventually, Bear goes to the other extreme by filling his calendar with a diverse collection of activities, from tap dancing to playing the harp to swimming, along with many more. Overcommitting can be a problem for many children, and the story addresses this with a somewhat adult turn, as a burned-out Bear collapses and must go to a convalescent facility to recover. Originally published in France, this book's humorous images keep the tone from becoming too serious, and the happy ending is reassuring.

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January 15, 2021
A bear's life is in shambles until he learns to tell time. Bear, large and orange, oversleeps on the top bunk. On the bottom bunk, an orange-haired child wakes and stretches. Bear's human family (all of whom present White) has a morning routine, but Bear's constantly late. He misses breakfast and the school bus; at school, he misses classes and lunch. Bear "will never learn how to read, count, or write," warns the text. "The problem...is that Bear cannot tell time." He's so hungry from missing meals that he steals pastry and goes to jail. Family love is conditional: "If you do that again, we will not be able to keep you," threatens Dad. Nitty-gritty clock-reading lessons from Dad in two 10-paneled spreads do succeed--after a terrifying double-page spread of Bear's clock-dominated nightmares (including visual references to Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, and Salvador Dal�). Now able to tell time, Bear deserves gifts and fabulous extracurricular activities, the latter ultimately leading to burnout, a vacation in the mountains (or maybe it's a sanatorium?), and--bafflingly--Bear's return with a spouse and children of his own (was he not a child in the original family?). There's a difference between simply not having learned yet to tell time and struggling with a sense of time, but here they blend, hitting neuroatypical readers hard with threats of banishment and conditional rewards. Jolivet's comics-style illustrations highlight orange, blue, and yellow with black outlines. This French import is meant to be funny, but beneath its lightheartedness beats a cold heart. (Picture book. 5-8)

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