BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations

Book Title: Five More Minutes (available here)

Author/Illustrator: Marta Altés

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books

Publication Date: March 2019

Suitable For: KS1

Reviewed By: Jenny Holder (@JennyHolderLiv), Reading Coordinator at Liverpool Learning Partnership

Review

Time can be a difficult topic for children to get their heads around – not only is reading a clock tricky but the way that people talk about time can be confusing.

Five More Minutes is narrated by a young fox cub who tells us all about the ways that his dad talks about time and how he can find this confusing and contradictory- e.g. “we have no time”, “time goes very fast”. The voice of the young cub is realistic and conversational. Young children will be able to relate to the idea of being told “it’s time to go” when they feel that they’ve only just begun to play.

The book is beautifully illustrated and filled with warm and cosy depictions of family life, from the children jumping on dad in the morning to wake him up to him telling them stories at the end of the day. The illustrations by Marta Altés show a loving father who doesn’t always find fitting everything into the day easy but always makes time to be with his children.

Although this book provides obvious stimulus for introducing telling the time, there’s also lots of opportunities for discussion in philosophy and PHSCE sessions. The book offers scope for thinking about the subjectivity of the passage of time as well as inviting children to share their favourite times that they spend with their family.

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You can order Five More Minutes online or from your local bookshop or library.

Many thanks to the publisher for sending us a copy of this book and to Jenny for reviewing it.