Customer Reviews

Time of Wonder (Viking Kestrel picture books)

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Robert McCloskey's "Time of Wonder" is just that--an examination of a wondrous summer spent in Maine. He follows two sisters (and nominally, their parents and friends) as they spend their days sailing, swimming, battening down for a big storm, and so on. Nothing of great import happens, but McCloskey has a lovely, calming way of relating their story so that we feel the sisters' closeness, their connection to their environment, and their childlike ability to find beauty and interest in nearly everything.

McCloskey's book was first published in 1957, and the illustrations show this--no life vests in a lot of the boating pictures, children swimming without being watched over by a lifeguard or adult, and so on. Still, that's not a bad thing--it shows the protective, exclusionary nature of childhood and the risks children take without even being fully aware that they ARE taking risks.

The illustrations are lovely. These paintings depict Maine as being beautiful without neglecting to show the dangerous side of coastal life as well (witness the storm scenes towards the end of the book). There is a caressing, rhythmic feel to the text which subtly imitates the tidal pull of the ocean. What a perfect gift for anyone who vacations in Maine--or wants to.

Time of Wonder is Robert McCloskey's lyrical tribute to the joys of being young in the summertime. The setting is his beloved Maine coast, on Penobscot Bay. The story builds around the approach of the rain, the cycle of the summer, the transition from morning to dark in a single day, and a hurricane. As wonderful as the story is, the illustrations are the highlight of this delightful book. They capture stunning panoramas, wind-swept moments, and gay times in the sun equally well in free flowing watercolors that are as fluid as the wind or the ocean. This book was awarded the Caldecott Medal for the outstanding quality of its illustrations in 1958.

Two unnamed girls are overlooking Penobscot Bay, watching the rain form in the distance . . . until they themselves are drenched!

Next, a full day evolves from the typical summer fog with sidelights about porpoises, lobstering, gulls, cormorants, the forest and its trees and fiddle-head ferns. Finally, the fog burns off and the scene shifts to bees, hummingbirds, other birds singing, sail boats, fishing boats, seals, the beach, rocks and children playing. Then, as dusk settles in, an owl, a heron, eider ducks, fishhawks, a crab, a rowboat, a flashlight and the stars frame the experience. At each moment, nature holds great adventures and mysteries for the girls to explore and exult in.

A seaplane symbolizes the coming and going from the area. The bulk of the people and animals are summer visitors.

Suddenly, everyone realizes a big storm is coming.

"We're going to have some weather.

It's a-coming!

She's gonna blow.

With the next shift of the tide."

There are boats to get ready. Windows need to be secured. People have to go inside. Once there, the rain and wind can still blow their way in. Eventually, the storm ends and the full moon reigns. The next day, the girls inspect the damage and find an old Indian shell heap that probably predates the first European visitors.

Then the girls have to help prepare for the next year. They get seaweed to put on as fertilizer for their garden. They pack up.

As they leave, they are

"A little bit sad

about the place you are leaving,

a little bit glad

about the place your are going."

One last thought hits them. "Where do hummingbirds go in a hurricane?"

This story does a marvelous job of helping children understand their connection to nature and to the powerful forces around them. Whether they are watching the wind, using it to push their sailboat, or riding out a hurricane, they know that they are a small part of a great scheme. If your child has yet to see many of these animals or scenes, you can use the illustrations to explain them. You will smile when you see the porpoises playing in the wake of the girls' sailboat.

A good application of this book is to think of a place where you and your child can go on a regular basis to observe and enjoy nature. It may be a near-by park. It may be a family vacation home. It may be a public beach. Take your child there. Take her by the hand, and show her the easy-to-miss wonders all around. And remember to visit in the fog, rain, and winds, as well as on sunny days. You can take pictures, draw sketches of what you see, and make a scrapbook that contains your thoughts and observations.

See beauty and harmony in the balance around you.

The reviewer who found this book "boring" must not have much in the way of imagination. This was one of my favorite books as a child and I still remember it fondly (I'm 38). It doesn't matter if you haven't had experiences exactly like those of the children in the book. The writing and the illustrations make you feel as if you are there. You can practically smell the sea, hear the wind and rain, and the laughter of the kids at the beach. While drawing a vivid picture of a concrete time and place, the book also invokes a sense of timelessness, as well as of "deep time" and the ancient rythyms of nature. I think my favorite moment is when one of the girls stands in a forested area on a misty morning, her eyes closed, and listens to nature awakening around her.

This is a book about taking a break from the fast-paced modern world and connecting with nature (and appreciating its power), with the past, and rediscovering your sense of wonder. Written in the mid-50's, it was ahead of its time in some ways and is definitely as relevant today as it was then, if not more so.

I have been a fan of Robert McCloskey books since I was old enough to remember (which was quite so time ago) and I only recently discovered this book. I think I have all of his other books and have read them over and over again through life, finally passing them on to my own daughter.

This is no less of a joy to read than any of the other books written by Robert McCloskey. If anything, it seems almost more lyrical and more developed than his early books.

One item of particluar note is that the illustrations are in color, as opposed to the single color or black and white of his other works. It is wonderful to watch the progress of his art through the various books, ending with the beautiful art in this title.

This is a book every child should have, and will keep, hopefully, until it is time to hand it on!

I received this book from my parents in about 1970. I finally visited Maine in 1997 and I cried because the images Mr. McCloskey painted of spring, summer, and fall in Maine, that I'd read so many years before, were so accurate. Rarely has an author captured natural beauty and people's enjoyment of it so eloquently and so clearly. I grew up with the Ducklings and Sal, but this book is the best. It is one I hope to grow old with, and I hope my 4 month old son will enjoy it as much as I did and still do. BUY IT!

(...)
The story, such as it is, follows a family in their summer home on an island in the ocean. Mostly following the children, the story reflects on the wonders of nature itself. The kids walk out into the mist on warm summery mornings. They leap from high ocean rocks, and sun themselves as the rocks grow warm. They sail a boat at night (they've fairly trusting parents, I'd wager) to spy on deep water crabs. Eventually, a hurricane comes to batter the family in their sturdy little home. In the end, the family must return to their real house/life/school and wait to return to the island another year. As they leave, the narrator opines that such moments as these make living a real time of wonder. A time for pondering things like, "I wonder where hummingbirds go in a hurricane".

Working in a medium unlike his usual pencils and inks, McCloskey seemed to draw the images in this book from a very private source. Though you may never have been in a summer home such as this or experienced moments like the ones the children go through, you feel the nostalgia embedded in this story. I may not have ever summered in places where I could make forts out of huge sea stones, but after reading this book I know what it would be like. People may say books such as this don't move quickly enough for kids today. Don't believe it. Kids are kids and good books are good books. The child that appreciates Elmo's World is still going to feel a sense of (for lack of a better word) wonder when they stare at the picture of the hurricane blowing the house's inhabitants in all directions. Kids interested in technical ship jargon and the process of buying supplies before a big storm will be fascinated by this tale as well. Some stories do not age. Others, age in such a way that they become deep and full-bodied like a good fine wine. "A Time of Wonder" falls into the latter category. Take a moment to enjoy it fully.

I read my children to sleep with this book every night. They call it their dream book since they drift off to sleep with thoughts of sand and sea in their heads. The words draw beautiful pictures.

The most poetic of Robert McCloskey's children's books, "Time of Wonder" evokes a childhood summer in Maine. The two girls in the illustrations, never named as the book is written in the second person, are a little more grown up than Sal and Jean in McCloskey's "One Morning in Maine." (The first book in McCloskey's Maine trilogy is, of course, "Blueberries for Sal.")

The places and names are real. McCloskey's descriptions of his adopted home area of northeast coastal Maine make me want to move there, at least for the summer. A late spring rain causing fiddlehead ferns to grow; summer afternoons diving off the age-old rocks; evening sailboat rides; preparing for an end-of-season storm and surveying the altered landscape the next morning; and the final bittersweet packing up, bringing home a few island treasures and adjusting the clock from the rise and fall of the tide to the come and go of the schoolbus ("And children, don't forget your toothbrushes") -- all these images are rendered so lyrically that you can read "Time of Wonder" 274 times to your toddler and never want to rush through it to the end.

Treasure this book. It should have a permanent place in your library.

Robert McCloskey's Time of Wonder was one of my favorite books as a child; I loved the way the girls in the story would go from place to place on their summer island and take in all of the impressions. But it was when I went back to read it as an adult that its wonderful lyricism touched me even deeper. Not to scare away anyone who is thining about buying this for their child, but I weep to read this book now. Hightest rating. Buy it!

Time of Wonder was my absolute favorite book as a child. I hope children today can still be fascinated by the glorious watercolors and beautifully written story, what with Nintendo and the seizure-inducing cartoons that have polluted their culture. Do I sound old-fashioned? I am 24 years old and am having my daily cigarette and glass of wine as I write. Unpolluted I am not, but I truly hope that today's progeny not be denied the joy of books, especially McCloskey's Time of Wonder, the story of two girls waiting out a gently blustering Maine hurricane. The short plot, to this steamy southern girl, was exotic and intriguing, and I can still close my eyes and visualize the soft watercolors of the patchwork quilt the girls used to huddle before the fire, and the brilliant blue of the post-storm ocean. Robert McCloskey will always be a classic children's author. I only hope that today's parents are aware of this, and will allow him to weave his memorable magic for their children.