How Long

After a day spent exploring the notion of time and finding concrete ways to measure its passage, Caroline asks her mother how long she will love her, and receives an answer even the youngest child will understand.

PreSchool-Gr2-Caroline, a young field mouse, doesn't understand the concept of time. Whenever she asks her mother "how long" until lunch or play time, her mother responds by saying 1 minute or 10 minutes or 15 minutes. Caroline doesn't know how long that is, so she continues with her activities. Soon, she begins to measure time by how many trucks she can line up, or how deep she can dig in the sand, or how long she can make her daisy chain. When mother and daughter curl up in their nest at night, the young mouse asks, "How long will you love me for?" This time, mother replies not in minutes, but by saying, "As long as it took to make all the stars in the sky...and everything else there is." The logic of the story's construction will enhance the explanation of time that is layered within it, while the charming text conveys a loving message. The soft watercolors, dominated by blues and golden browns, underline the warmth of the story. There is enough repetition to make this a fine read-aloud and plenty of love to make it a perfect bedtime-sharing book.
Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Caroline is busy painting a line, but she wants to know how long it will be before her mother can read her a story. The answer, "In a minute," doesn't help much: "But how long was a minute?" she wonders. So she keeps painting, and when her mother comes, Caroline decides that the length of the line is a good measure of a minute ("That long!" she concludes). Assembling a long parade of trucks fills 10 minutes (the time until lunch); digging a tunnel in the sand equals 15 minutes (when Mommy can play); etc. British author Dale again plays on the word "long" ("It's been a long day," says the mother at bedtime) before hitching her story to a sweet conclusion, in which Caroline's mother offers a classic response to the question "How long will you love me for?" Carnegie Medalist Marks (Storm) plumbs every bit of tenderness in the text and adds his own. His tranquil watercolors depict Caroline and her mother as barely anthropomorphized harvest mice; Caroline's mother can be seen amid tall grasses, gathering nuts for lunch and building a nest. Otherwise naturalistic settings smoothly incorporate Caroline's paintbrush, trucks and other toys, giving the art a subtle note of whimsy that, in turn, gives the serviceable story considerable appeal. Ages 3-6.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 3^-5. With some of the same sweet warmth as Sam McBratney's Guess How Much I Love You (1995), this tender picture book depicts a little field mouse waiting for her mother's attention. Caroline wants to know how long before her mother can read her a story. "Oh, in a minute," Mom replies. But how long is that? Caroline wonders. And what does Mom mean when she says that she'll play with Caroline in 15 minutes or that bedtime is coming in 20? As Caroline waits for her mother, she plays--painting, lining up her trucks, making a daisy chain--making time pass and also measuring it by her accomplishments. Dale's softly focused illustrations and closing good-night scene make this a fine bedtime story as well as an introduction to the difficult concepts of time and nonstandard measurement. Stephanie Zvirin