"Time of Wonder" by Robert McCloskey: A Collection of Picture Puffins

Bradley Jackson: This story is beautifully told and illustrated! It makes me long for the adventures of a childhood summer spent at the cottage.

Canada on Nov 12, 2023

Fatima Sultan: My grandkids loved it!

United States on Oct 04, 2023

JulsRULESGirl: One of our most beloved books! Love the watercolors! Beautifully written.

United States on Sep 24, 2023

William R. Britton, Jr.: Great gift for my first Granddaughter!

United States on May 21, 2023

Fabrizio Toni: This book transported me to a stunning location with fascinating wildlife. But it awakened a longing for childhood and family holidays from my past and a longing for future in heaven. A simply stunning book.

Italy on Jul 12, 2021

Robert in Tempe: I have loved this story since I was a child, and now decades later I give it as gifts for relatives and friends' children to learn to read. The two girls at the center of the story experience the joys of vacation on a island off the coast of Maine, apparently an annual family event for them. The watercolor paintings catch the beauty and subtlety of color of water, land, forest, and weather. I love the page where the girls are in a rowboat shining a flashlight into the water. The build to the big storm gives a strong push to the narrative, and the paintings capture it perfectly. A great book for curling up with a loved child.

United States on Sep 02, 2020

Ricardo Luchetti: Really a lovely book, nicely written and illustrated.

United Kingdom on Aug 10, 2020

Old Cape Coder: This is high art in the form of a children's picture book. The combination of the poetry and the beautiful painterly images create a feeling of a both wonder and sadness. For kids this is a great story about having and adventurous summer on an island in Maine. For adults seeing the summer pass for these two little girls also evokes the feeling a larger sense of time passing and how fleeting our time on earth really is. The book won the Caldecott Medal in 1957.

United Kingdom on Mar 02, 2019

FST: We keep a lot of kids books in the house, and this is my favorite. In my opinion this is a children's literature masterpiece. The Nightwatch, Guernica, One Hundred Years of Solitude-- in that vein. Along so many dimensions it shows levels of storytelling, art, and craftsmanship that are so immaculate, I almost tear up trying to describe it any further.

It's a bit of a longer read-- for a child it is almost an epic-- which kind of requires an earlier bedtime, or a non-school night. Maybe that keeps it special for us.

For my kids, it might not be on their top 3 lists at any given time-- but those change every couple months anyhow. I think spending the time reading this to them, showing them the love of nature, and of a simpler world, and for the ones I read it to, far outweighs more fleeting pleasures (which of course are important as well). That's what it means to be a parent anyhow. So make it a part of your life.

United States on Nov 06, 2014

L Gray: Our modern lives can be quite hectic. We expect instant results, fast food, 24 hour online shopping.
This book reminds us that life can be lived at a slower pace, with the tides and the seasons.
My 4 year old loves this book, I do too.

United Kingdom on Jun 12, 2013