Bear Against Time

Poor bear is never on time to anything. The cute illustrations and storyline really make the reader feel sorry for him, but it is fun to watch and learn along with bear as he learns how to tell time.

This is a simply lovely, well written book with beautiful illustrations. Perfect for getting younger children interested in the concept of time. Would highly recommend.

I received an electronic ARC from W. W. Norton & Company through NetGalley.
Charming book to introduce telling time for younger readers plus a bit more.
Bear is constantly late. He wakes up late and the day goes from there. The family he lives with devotes a weekend to teaching him to read a clock and tell time. He finally cracks the code and makes it everywhere on time. The family give him a watch and an agenda and he is ecstatic. A great place to end the book but Fromental has more to say.
Bear becomes so caught up in activities and overscheduling that he collapses and has a breakdown. He returns to the north to rest in quiet. The author goes on to share that he meets someone and they connect and start their own family. Love the ending where he brings his family to meet the family he stayed with.
Fromental's message comes through clearly about overcommitment and our health. This is a book to be appreciated on several levels. Adults may need the reminder about schedules more than children. Everyone needs times of rest. The point is made without hammering it too hard.
The illustrations support the text. I especially love the agenda page illustrations as they get more frantic as Bear fills and overfills his time.

Lovely book to teach children not only to tell the time but also the importance of being on time and being organised. However, this book also goes a little bit further and opens the door to a more philosophical reading - you could open questions about: the time on the clock and how people/ children feel time, and time passing in our lives. It is a book that can be used, let’s say - many times! The illustrations are engaging and entertaining and meets the storyline well.

Do you have students, a child, or a grandchild who needs to learn to tell time? Jean-Luc Fromental’s Bear Against Time could be just what you are looking for to help! Published in France in 2018, this fun story about a human family teaching a bear to tell time has now been translated into English for the first time with cute illustrations by Joëlle Jolievet.

Bear is living with a human family—parents and two children—and attending school. His inability to tell time causes problems all day long. Bear does not get up soon enough to eat breakfast before school, misses the bus, must stay inside to work during recess, arrives in music class with his gym gear, and more. He falls horribly behind in his classes.

When the family has one weekend to teach Bear to tell time, Father gets creative. He draws a large diagram of a pizza sliced into twelve pieces and marked with the numbers on the clock. He teaches bear to count the pizza slices to help him understand the hours on a clock, using a cutout hour hand for practice. After bear has mastered the hours, Father divides each slice of the pizza into five smaller slices to represent the minutes and adds a cutout minute hand for more practice.

By the end of the weekend, Bear has not only learned to tell time, but also been rewarded for his success. Among his rewards is a planner to organize his days. His class rank skyrockets, and he finds himself with free time for extracurricular activities. Unfortunately, the planner and all his new-found free time cause a new problem for Bear. He crams his planner with far too many activities. Having previously taught the word “punctuality,” the book now teaches “burnout.”

Bear Against Time ends happily and with a couple more surprise twists.

Fromental’s story and Jolievet’s illustrations provide a creative and fun way to teach children how to tell time. Reading the book won’t be enough, but will provide an excellent start. With individual practice using this technique, kids should quickly master reading a traditional analog clock.

Thanks to NetGalley, Norton Young Readers/W. W. Norton, and the author and illustrator for providing a review copy of this useful picture book.

Bear just can't seem to get the handle on telling time and not being late. But once he does, he creates another set of problems for himself. Bear Against Time will appeal to a variety of readers across different ages, not just those learning to tell time. I really appreciate seeing self-care and overcoming burnout reflected in picture books.