It's time for bed again, and Marco, a small red bird who lives with his (human) mother and father, simply has too much to do! He's got masterpieces to paint, underwater inventions to create, halfpipes to skate -- or better yet, inventions to create so that he can paint underwater while skateboarding at a world-class level! How can it possibly all get done? When one idea builds on top of another, and every object he encounters just screams inspiration, why would Marco ever want to put on his pajamas and brush his beak? With humor and a great deal of energy, this delightful new character from acclaimed illustrator Roz Chast will rev kids up and wear them out--just in time for bed. K-Gr 3–Marco the parrot is too busy for bedtime. Cartoon illustrations in watercolor, gouache, and ink show his human mother from the waist down and a talking alarm clock urging him away from his playthings. Thought bubbles depict his dreams of painting, scientific discoveries, skateboarding, and bowling. The images attempt to show that Marco has too many plans and no time for sleeping. However, cluttered with lines, objects, and color, the pages lack a focal point. Likewise, the story lacks development in plot or character. Adult fans of Chast's New Yorker cartoons may appreciate this loose artistic style, but most children will be better satisfied by Anna Dewdney's Llama, Llama Red Pajama (Viking, 2005), Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Little Hoot (Chronicle, 2008), Barney Saltzberg's Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for Bed? (Candlewick, 2005), or Peggy Rathmann's 10 Minutes Till Bedtime (Putnam, 1998). Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD © Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. Marco’s an interesting bird. Red-feathered, beady-eyed, baseball-capped, and surrounded by a million toys, chemistry sets, musical instruments, and board games, he has far too much to do to follow his mother’s bedtime edict. Just think of all the better ways to spend one’s time! So begin the wild fantasies, each one piggybacking on the other until all sense of time is joyously lost. Marco dreams about painting his masterpiece, which leads to plans for discovering new fish (like the Cube-headed La-Di-Dah), which leads to the invention of underwater paint, which leads to other inventions like invisibility gum, which leads to . . . well, you get the idea. Soon his genius becomes too much, and Marco freaks: Couldn’t he just have five teeny-tiny, eentsy-weentsy, bitsy-witsy, small, little, miniature, microscopic, shrimpy, measly MINUTES?!? The irreverent asides of the doodly watercolor-and-gouache illustrations betray Chast’s New Yorker cartooning background, and to swell effect. Kids will recognize the disgruntled bristle of Marco’s plumage and agree: life is unfair! Parents, meanwhile, will tell them to go to bed anyway. Preschool-Grade 2. --Daniel Kraus * "Chast’s signature cartoon illustrations . . . will amuse readers and listeners, allowing new discoveries with each reading. . . . Youngsters who are developing a sense of humor have no better place to start than here. . . . Perfect for repeated bedtime reading." - KIRKUS, STARRED REVIEW "The irreverent asides of the doodly watercolor-and-gouache illustrations betray Chast’s New Yorker cartooning background, and to swell effect. Kids will recognize the disgruntled bristle of Marco’s plumage and agree: life is unfair! Parents, meanwhile, will tell them to go to bed anyway." -- BOOKLIST "Cartoonist Chast brings her affectionate, anxious line and fascination with the eccentrically ordinary to an original riff on bedtime avoidance." -- Horn Book Roz Chast is a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker and is the illustrator of Steve Martin’s popular children’s book The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z . She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children. She is also the author and illustrator of Too Busy Marco , Marco Goes to School , and Around the Clock . Used Book in Good Condition