Too Busy Marco Book

Anybody trying to put a little one to sleep knows that bedtime is the equivalent to new explorations or creative stalling. In cartoonist Roz Chast's Too Busy Marco that is just what little Marco does. As bedtime nears, Marco finds that he is not tired and must explore his big dreams. He finds that has to paint, explore fish underwater, explore painting underwater and that there is too much to do and that bedtime cannot be an option! Eventually Marco finally goes to bed where he dreams of skateboarding through the cosmos with space monkeys.


Such a cute book! Bedtime remains a chore in my house. My tween always has one more thing she needs to do, one thing more to share with me or one more anything to get five more minutes that she claims that she needs. And working with parents and their little ones this book strikes me as that time before napping where new things MUST be explored and sleep is merely something that will get in the way.




My first look through I didn't really care for the cartoons; there seemed to be too much going on on each page. But as I read the book again I found that the frantic look and feel of the pictures reflects what kids are thinking when they hear the phrase, "It's bedtime" when there is still so much to do.




General considerations?

This book was really sweet. Unlike the soothing Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown or Ten, Nine, Eight by Molly Bang this book reflects what bedtime is: a race to stall. This book has a good plot, its fun and funny, the characters are believable. My favorite page is his request, demand, appeal for Five teeny-tiny, eentsy-weensty,bitsy-witsy, small, little miniature, microscopic, shrimpy, measly minutes!