Review by Booklist Review
The idea of time being different from one place to the next may be a difficult concept for children to understand, but this global celebration does the trick. The book begins at 6:00 in the morning in San Francisco, where people are just waking up. But in Cape Town, South Africa, it's 4:00 p.m., and a group of children are playing, and in Bangkok, Thailand, it's 9:00 at night, and traditional Thai dancers are in the middle of a performance. Time moves linearly, and the reader travels east to get a glimpse of life in a variety of countries, ending back in San Francisco with the start of a new day. People in the brightly colored illustrations are diverse and sometimes wearing cultural apparel of the country, though those occasionally skirt too close to stereotypes. Some characters aren't human at all, as penguins pose for a picture in the South Sandwich Islands and a moose crosses the street in Anchorage. The message is a good one to take to heart: although the time and location are different, some things, like family, friends, and dancing, remain the same.--Linsenmeyer, Erin Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Time zones are not always easy to understand.This book starts out in San Francisco, California, at 6 a.m. with a yawning city dweller looking out on a cable car. Each page uses the same format with the time spelled out on the top ("It's seven o'clock in the morning") and the phrase "And somewhere in the world" at the bottom. In between, there is a descriptive sentence usually identifying a city and country (or state in the U.S.) for each zone, traveling eastward. A full-bleed painting, often featuring comical animals as well as humans and sights, illustrates each page. (For most locales, residents are depicted, but occasionally only white visitors are seen, as at the Taj Mahal and South Pole Station). There is a timepiece in each picture to look for. Occasionally there are grown-up jokes. "A girl from Ipanema goes walking on a beach" in Rio. Visual jokes for younger readers also appear. At noon, one penguin in the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic poses for another drawing a picture. Famous tourist sites are often the focus. Eventually, the scene returns to San Francisco, but not before a moose nonchalantly walks through the streets of Anchorage, Alaska, at 5 a.m. There are two pages of explanatory material, including instructions for making a sundial. Unfortunately, there is no world map delineating the zones. Straightforwardwith a little bit of fun. (Informational picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
