10 Minutes till Bedtime (Hardcover)

by Peggy Rathmann (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Ten minutes till bedtime!" Father announces from behind his newspaper. Out a picture window, his son and his son's pet hamster can see a hamster family (with kids numbered 1 to 10) approaching the house. "All aboard!" shouts the boy's prized pet, as his puzzled owner opens the door and the hamster tourists are loaded onto the special trolley. What the humans at 1 Hoppin Place don't know is that their cherished family pet has advertised on the Web (www.hamstertours.com) for a "10-Minute Bedtime Tour," and the hordes have only just begun to descend.

"Nine minutes till bedtime," Father insists, oblivious to the burgeoning hamster parade. At the 8-minute marker, the hamsters and the boy are in the kitchen for a pre-bedtime snack. One little guy is standing on top of a fruit bowl, lowering a cherry cluster with a string and paper clip. Hamster number 10 is trying to feed an animal cracker to the boy's fuzzy bedroom slipper. "Seven minutes till bedtime!" reminds Father as creative tooth-brushing progresses. But what's this? It's the 5-minute countdown marker, and the faint light of hamster headlights appears out the window. More tourists are on their way! Buses, trucks, taxis, and golf carts full of rodents are driving up the sidewalk! Hilarious hamster hijinks ensue. If you're not seeing the appeal here, it's like this: each spread is turbocharged with dozens of winsome, adorable details that will keep youngsters giggling and entranced--and counting to 10--time after time. Peggy Rathmann, author of the Caldecott Medal-winning Officer Buckle and Gloria, offers readers a rollicking rodent romp that ends with a goodnight kiss and many, many closed eyelids. (Click to see a sample spread. Copyright © 1998 Peggy Rathmann, published by Putnam Books, a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.) (Ages 2 to 8) --Karin Snelson

From Publishers Weekly
Caldecott Medalist Rathmann (Officer Buckle and Gloria) builds a captivating series of mini-plots from a basic countdown premise with few words and abundant action. A child?who could be a girl or boy?plays with an energetic hamster family with just 10 minutes to go before she's tucked into bed. As the child's father idly reads the newspaper and clocks the passing time ("9 minutes till bedtime"), a rotund hamster in a blue conductor's uniform echoes each announcement with a tiny megaphone. Meanwhile, the hamster parents and their 10 active offspring, distinguishable by numbered yellow-and-red striped jerseys, frolic throughout the house. Rathmann endows each with a distinctive personality: Numbers 3 and 4 are twins, 8 shows only its rear end and stroller-bound toddler 10 declares "eat" and "more!" After additional golden-brown rodents arrive (in Goodnight Gorilla fashion) at the front door (raising the count to well above 50), the child reads this very book to a vast audience, takes a bath surrounded by furry beachgoers (and lotion, ants and sunglasses galore), then hurries through other pre-bed rituals before a final cry of "Bedtime!" Every engrossing illustration provides an exercise in numerals and Where's Waldo?-style concentration; die-hard fans will not only count Gorilla among the throngs, but Officer Buckle opens and closes the show, and young readers will note Rathmann's return to Napville for this nocturnal adventure. If Rathmann has her way, young slumberers will be counting hamsters, not sheep, as they drift off to sleep. Ages 2-6.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (September 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039923103X
• ISBN-13: 978-0399231032
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #79,432 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 19 month old loves 10 Minutes... Has to have it!, June 24, 1999

By A Customer

My 19th month old son loves this book; he'll drag it out for us to read to him at least once a day. And at bedtime you can forget about any other books if he spies this one. It has very little text so you can change the story and comments each time which if oyu've ever read a booka hundred times is a nice option. The illustrations are detailed so you can find something new eachtime but not so cluttered that it's confusing. And if you are familiar with Goodnight Gorilla, also by Rathman, there is a scene from that book in the background of one in 10 Minutes... Bottom line, buy ths book if you have a small child. They'll love it!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4 1/2 Much More Than a Counting Book!, May 12, 2005

By	M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: 10 Minutes till Bedtime (Board book)

Peggy Rathmann is the author and illustrator of "Goodnight Gorilla-her masterpiece-as well as several other highly acclaimed books (e.g., "Officer Buckle and Gloria," "The Day the Babies Crawled Away"). This book combines a number of familiar motifs: Animals that may or may not be imaginary (visible only to the boy protagonist, but not to his father), counting between 1 and 10, lots of detailed background activity, self-referential humor, fantasy spinning off of the mundane, and an exciting conclusion hinging on whether the boy will get to bed on time.

The surface plot is simple: A father immersed in his paper (with humorous stories on it) announces that it's 10 minutes until the boy's bedtime, and counts down the remaining time each minute. Rathmann takes it much further than this though. For some reason, the boy's real hamster advertises a "10-minute bedtime tour" in the local paper. The hamsters arrival coincides with the 10-minutes in which the boy must get ready for bed. For the rest of the story, the pet hamster echoes the father's countdown, and the guest hamsters follow the boy around as he brushes his teeth, goes on the "potty," reads a story, etc. The echoes reverberate like two facing mirrors. Not only do the hamsters recapitulate the father and son's activities, but also the boy becomes his own doppelganger. He's shown reading a book--this book, "10 Minutes Till Bedtime." On page 22 (four minutes to go), you see him looking over his chair at the scores of newly arrived hamsters in his bedroom, holding this book turned to page 22. More and more hamsters arrive, practically filling the bathtub, and they cluster in groups dancing in hulas, laying in deck chairs, water-skiing, and boating. The whole book seems close to exploding with hamster tourists, until a gigantic shout of "Bedtime!" shakes them off the rafters and out of the house.

This is an ambitious book with mixed results. The illustrations are wonderful, luminous (including the signature lamppost), colorful, and with good separation of foreground and background. Rathmann's pictures of the ever-increasing hamsters are convincing, and their adaptation of human activities (traveling in campers made out of oatmeal boxes, taking pictures, riding a toy train, etc.) is funny and recognizable despite the miniature scale. Still, it's a very busy book, and the crescendo of hamster-mania is not exactly calming (although the humor is). It's also a bit difficult to explain how this all happens. You can either go with the "it's just his imagination" angle, or you can say these are things that only children can see, or you can just ignore plausibility altogether and hope your child does too. What's somewhat more annoying is Rathmann's self-referential humor, especially the commercialization of the gorilla from "Goodnight Gorilla." If fantasies are inherently valuable, then why must we see the gorilla become the doll property of the boy. Moreover, the drawings of this book inside the book also seem unnecessary and contrived. In a way, this repeated product placement feels more like more self-promotion than the clever or sly touches for which Ms. Rathmann is famous.

Overall, if your child enjoys abstract fantasy, animals, and slightly busy books with lots of tiny activities on every page, this book may become a favorite. For me, none of her books rivals the simple, wry humor of "Goodnight, Gorilla." However, Rathmann challenges both herself and her readers with this very interesting excursion. Slightly older kids (say, early elementary school age may enjoy the "Sims"-like quality of the scurrying hamsters, and others may enjoy the "Where's Waldo" detail. There's no trouble finding `Waldo' here: The real or imagined hamsters are here, there, and almost everywhere. The book is nicely produced, with little touches like photos of the "tour" on the inside book covers, and excellent color reproduction.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars *Great* book, but get the hardcover vs. the board book, January 21, 2004

By	Jane Healy "repto" (Blue Island, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: 10 Minutes till Bedtime (Board book)

My children adore this book, so we've read it many, many times. They still squeal with delight and laughter. There is so much detail, that you can't help but discover something new with each reading (keeping it entertaining for mom and dad as well as Junior). My one recommendation is that you buy the hardcover version versus the board book. We have both. The board book lacks some of the detail of the original.