It’s About Time, Max!-Book Review

Telling time is a skill everyone learns but the author Kitty Richards gets it right in her children story, It’s About Time Max! The story makes the old adage time flies when you’re having fun come true. This coming of age story deals with how to tell time, a topic that many people forget when they become adults. This story will have children wondering how an author can understand their feelings so well, and will have adults remembering their first experience with time.
Max is in control of his routine through the power of his digital watch. One morning his digital watch disappears and now his whole world is turned upside down. Max is in a hurry accepts a different watch from his sister, but unbeknownst to him it is a clock with hands. Max struggles with his transition from a digital clock to a clock with hands on it. Because of his struggle with time he is late to school and to a monster movie. That is until his family decides to come to his rescue and teach Max how to tell time with a game.
Understanding the normal routine of Max and how it gets so messy with misunderstanding of time is a great depiction of our society. Time is a crucial element to human life and the portrayal of this aspect of life in this story lets children understand how important it is to tell time. Some stories see to have the right premises but go wrong in their storytelling. The opposite occurred in this story, Kitty Richards, got this premise right and the story paid dividends for it.
Richards, Kitty. (2000). It’s About Time Max! New York: The Kane Press.