"Don't be annoyed when you have to wait; rejoice in extra time to practice being present," wrote Jan Chozen Bays. It's almost as if she were anticipating this vivacious, engaging story by award-winning author and illustrator Bee Johnson.
During the errand day that Johnson captures here, two siblings heading into town with their mom wind up with multiple waits, but do they complain? Yes, you'll be happy to hear — this tale is as real as can be — but only once when they have a melt-down at lunch before their food arrives. Any parent can relate. The rest of the time, they're inventing things to do, from games of chase to entertaining a toddler in front of them in line to splashing in puddles.
Accompanying these pleasures are charming rhymes, such as:
"Thunder rumbles.
Clouds hang low.
No umbrella!
Where to go?
"Speckled sidewalk.
Stormy weather.
While we wait,
we squeeze together."
And the pictures are the kind at which you just can't stop gazing. The rumples of rain-spattered umbrellas hide dashing pedestrians from view while our undaunted mom and her two kids huddle under an awning. The inviting colors and details — a waitress's name tag, broken bits of crayons, a Scandinavian Dala horse — could keep any child occupied. But what amazed us most was the balanced geometry of how people lean toward or away from each other: a squirmy child tilting backward while her mother counterbalances, a drummer leaning forward with a big grin while the two kids and a dog dance to his beat.
And all this rambunctiousness ends with bedtime. Could anything be more satisfying for a four-to-eight-year-old reader?
