Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley

by John Burningham

It's time to get out of the bath but Shirley's not listening. She's floated away to a secret watery land beyond the plughole—to where knights ride white horses, and kings and queens float in moats around their castles.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 11, 1978

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bur...

Married to Helen Oxenbury They have one son and two daughters.

John Burningham was born in 1936 in Farnham, Surrey, and attended the alternative school, Summerhill. In 1954 he spent two years travelling through Italy, Yugoslavia and Israel, working at a variety of jobs.

From 1956-1959, he studied at the Central School of Art, after which he designed posters for London Transport and the British Transport Commission. He also spent a year on an animated puppet film in the Middle East. He then became a writer and illustrator of children's books, his first book, Borka: The Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers (1963) winning the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1963, an achievement he repeated with Mr Gumpy's Outing (1970).

Since then, he has written and illustrated many children's books. He is also a freelance designer of murals, exhibitions models, magazine illustrations and advertisements.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A favourite read from bedtime story days. This is a simple but imaginative story told in two halves. On the left hand page, Shirley's mum is going on about things, wet towels, messy clothes, and on the left hand page Shirley is escaping down the plug hole on an inflatable duck to have 'it's a knockout' style adventures with medieval kings and queens. We loved the imaginative play and magic world that springs from someone bored with mundane existence and endless rules and parental moans. There are several Burningham books like this, it made me wonder if Burningham had parents who didn't like children or perhaps he's trying to reassure the child who doesn't have loving parents that they are not alone.

We really enjoyed these brief and silly, down the plug hole adventures and as expected the illustrations are a lovely mix of colours and techniques, very enjoyable to look at.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very creative. It showed two different perspectives. The first perspective was the one the mother had and the second was the one Shirley had. The mother was at home waiting for Shirley to get out of the tub, while Shirley was having an adventure. I also liked the pictures that were done throughout this book. I thought it was very enjoyable

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd story and not really to my liking, but it does appear to pay tribute to a child's imagination.

[Mialynn Wessels · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did end up giving this children's picture book five stars. I had to re-read this book a couple of times just to understand the concept of the book and how the parallel universes aligned. This brings a great message to parents more than children I think, and I will explain that more when giving a summary of the book. But first impressions, I wasn't that interested and later on started loving it.

This book is about a little girl named Shirley who is taking a bath and is wanting to have fun and play while taking a bath. Her mom is complaining to her about all the things she needs to do, such as having having a wet towel on the floor, having the soap in a certain place, and so on. While her mom is complaining on one side, on the other side you see Shirley having the time of her life in her imaginary world.

The book had a lot of detail and really brought two worlds into one with the illustrations. At the end you see what her toys were in the tub and when you look back you can see that those were in her imagination. There were bright colors on her side and on the moms side it was very bland and not entertaining at all.

I really loved this book but like I said, I think it brings a great message to parents as well on letting your children still be a kid. Let them make a mess if they are playing and let them be creative. Being a child doesn't last long so try and pro-long it as long as you possibly can.

[Cassaday · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Time To Get Out Of The Bath, Shirley" by John Burningham is book in which Shirley is taking a bath while her mother is nagging her to get out, saying there's water everywhere, the clothes are dirty, but while the mother is nagging Shirley is going through the drain and into a magic kingdom where she is playing and knocking over the king of the kingdom. My initial thoughts about this book are that it encaptures what is going through the minds of children at that age. They are in magical kingdoms and somewhere else that isn't here on Earth, they can be anywhere in their minds. It really empowers the idea of imagination in children and how their minds work. The artistic drawings for the mother in the house are lightly colored and simplistic while when it shows Shirley's imagination it is colorful and heavily drawn out. This goes to show the magnitude of color going on in the minds of children that differs from maybe our not-so colorful world. The book sees into the minds of younger readers and people of all ages can enjoy this as well as it is a fun book to relate to when you were a child. Rate: 5/5.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this cautionary tale for young women that hasn’t dated at all, Shirley’s mother’s role is to clean house and pester Shirley to do the same. Shirley’s doing fuck all to help. Later, Shirley’s mother has a valium while Dad ‘works late’. When he eventually stumbles in smelling like a brewery, she attempts to strike up a conversation, which he ignores, because he doesn’t want to hear about what a pain in the arse it was to get their kid out of the bath, any more than Shirley did. Shirley’s mother wonders how her life became about picking up after someone who doesn’t give two shits about her efforts. She tries not to complain about this shitty situation so she doesn’t look like a nagging bitch. Does Valium pair well with wine? she wonders. She is trying to remember when her husband gropes her. She tells him she has a headache. FML, thinks Shirley’s mum, who is almost certain she once had a name and dreams of her own. As she drifts off to sleep, she promises herself that tomorrow will be the day she finally runs away to join that lesbian feminist collective commune.

[Elly Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Shirley is taking a bath and her imagination is taking her on many different adventures with kings, castles, knights, and everything in between. Meanwhile, Shirley's mom is obviously annoyed and chastising her for not keeping her bath quick and tidy.

There is a theme of the two perspectives that play out. With each turn of a page, on the left side Shirley's mom is busy and getting frustrated with her daughter, while the right side shows a wordless surrealistic adventure that Shirley is taking in her head. The picture with her mom is very small, boring, dull and lacks color, while Shirley's pictures are colorful, detailed and imaginative.

I think this book is portraying the way parents can sometimes forget that kids are kids. They are allowed to play and have fun, and use their imagination. Sometimes it is okay for messes to be made, and things to be left undone.

[Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is told my two perspectives. It is from the mother's perspective, trying to get Shirley out of the bath. Then there is Shirely's perspective who is having her own fantasy with her experience in the bath. On the mother's perspective she is doing mundane tasks and telling Shirley she wishes she was more responsible like with picking up her clothes and cleaning things up. Shirely is having an experience in a new world with herself. This can show how children are going to be having an imaginative while adults are more worried about what is going on and what is not happening. By the end of the story Shirely and her mother just look at each other, maybe knowing they were not even listening to each other or in the same world.

[Jenny Dufault · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the layout of this book to be very creative and unique. There are two perspectives, Shirley's mom and Shirley herself as she takes a bath. The illustrations are displayed in two separate panels for each of them. As the story goes on, we see the mom talking to Shirley about cleaning up and her attempting to get her out of the bath, while Shirley is in a whole different world filled with adventure. In the very last panel, you can see her bath toys are the bottom of the tub that resemble soome of the characters depicted in her panel of the story. I found the way the author and illustrator framed the illustrations to drive the story and represent two perspectives to be an enjoyable breakaway from the typical picture book.

[Lauryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time to Get Out of the Bath Shirley introduces you to a mother and a very stubborn little girl Shirley, who surprise surprise, does not want to get out of the bath. The illustrations in this book are very simple yet at the same time very detailed and full of color. This book is full of a little fantasy and reality at the same time. This book takes you on a very large adventure that Shirley is going through while her mom has been stranded and left behind. This book does a great job of introducing you to the childrens perspective rather than leaving it out and making the kids side of the story less known.

[Brian Askins · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it may take a little time to understand the storytelling in this book, once you see what is going on, it is a very lovable book! The alternate universes aligning up on the adjacent pages is a very unique, but effective storytelling technique. The images contain so much detail, it is very easy to come up with the exact story that Shirley was living in her imagination. While it was written over 40 years ago, it still stands up to today's standards and is a wonderful book to read to children.

[Fantasia Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had a theme similar to “the magic mirror” I feel like the colors were the same and so were the characteristics on the characters for example in the first book I read it looked like water paintings and the color were very suttle and natural like the first one. The page the told you what would happen before you start wasn’t on the cover page it was 2 pages after and I thought that was different. The pages on the left used the paper on background and it was just a picture with text , the pages on the right were pictures on a boarder
Overall a good book (no spoilers) • theme

[Deserae Duran · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains two stories. The first story is the mom complaining about everything Shirley has done and the second story is Shirley drifting off to a magical place during her bath. This story is great because it shows what the two are thinking about. The end of the bath were their two worlds finally come back together is interesting because they just stare. I really enjoyed this book and it could actually teach parents something believe it or not.

[Anysa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The contrast is everything. This is a perfect representation of different voices and different points of views. I love how even though both points of views are different types of quedarse they still show the contrast between them. There’s a solid line on the moms side which could represent boring or plain parenting un like the children has color until the end of the drawing. The drawings weren’t my favorite but I also don’t see this book in any other type of coloring.

[Katie Jimenez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this story that had more of a theme of the imagination of a child. As a child, you do not have the same worries and stressors that of someone who is your mom. The mom in the story the entire time is constantly nagging her daughter about everyday nuisances, such as a dirty shirt of towel, but the mind of her daughter is more focused on other things. Shirley has already shrunk herself miniature, went down the drain and is now in some sort of magical kingdom, while the mom is still talking on and on about so many little issues. It feels like it is more of a message to parents and how they sometimes forget what it is like to be an imaginative kid. Kids are always escaping things through their imaginations, and often times adults lose their ability to make-believe things because they are so caught up in their worldly things, and it was interesting for a book to almost expose those behaviors in a way that they might be able to pick up on it.

[Jennifer Endsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job portraying how children’s minds work and how their imagination works too. When children a taking a bath, they usually like to have toys, which they play with and come up with different adventures and games. I like how the book portrayed this and the pictures did the story justice, but this book wasn’t one of my favorites and I probably wouldn’t read it again. It didn’t draw me in and didn’t keep my attention. It might be more appealing to younger readers because they can relate to it, but as someone more older, it is Hard for me to remember those times where my imagination ran wild.

[Christie Kaaland · Rating 5 out of 5]

While Shirley journeys through a fanciful fantasy of kings, queens, horses, and knights (as she escaped through to by heading down the drain while taking a bath), her mother nags and prods Shirley to all those typical things mums reprimand on when a haphazard young girl preps for bath time: clothes on the floor, too much water splashed around, etc.

Burningham cleverly promotes Shirley's adventures in bright colors while mom's drudgery cleaning are faded and pastel, delivering a sense of ennui and exhaustion on her part.

A classic 50 year old picture book that has an interesting backstory of how it got published.... research that!

[Emma Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shirley takes her sweet time in the bath and using the best of her imagination. Her mind runs wild as her mother complains about how dirty and irresponsible Shirley is. All the while Shirly goes on many adventures in her bathtub world. Even though this book was intended for much younger children, it is written for any mindset driven by strong imagination. This book I would defiantly keep in my classroom library for children to relate to. (portfolio 2)

[Jessie Polson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a little girl named Shirley who loves her bath time. Shirley always imagines a different land with knights in shining armor, and while she imagines this, her mother talks to her about how she is messy. Her mother finds dirty clothes, and finds water seeping from the bath, and Shirley is still mesmerized by her imagination of the far away land in her head. Shirley ends the book by finally getting out of the bath!

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another title in which Burningham makes use of the left and right pages to tell a dual line story while Shirley and her Mother are in the same room. It’s bath time for Shirley and her Mother is supervising. The Mother illustrated on the left hand side is occupied with looking in the bathroom mirror as well as tidying up the bathroom while Shirley is off in her imagination having adventures in colorful illustrations obviously not listening to her Mother’s chatter.

[Jane McCarville · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Time to Get Out of the Bath, Shirley" tells two parallel stories. On one hand, Shirley's mother repeatedly tells her daughter that it's time to get out of the bath. Meanwhile, Shirley, in her active imagination, transforms her mundane bath time into a series of exciting adventures.

Teaching ideas could be to use pictures to outline the steps of a bath routine, helping children understand the sequence of events and promoting independence. A second idea is to talk about why it's important to be clean and healthy, using bath time as a context.

[Nichola Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shirley is in the bath and ignoring her mother who is busy moaning about having to pick up her clothes of the floor, drying up the splashed water etc - which I'm sure most children can relate to.
In the meantime Shirley's imagination takes her down the plug hole and on a magnificent adventure with Knight's, Kings & Queens. No words are needed on these pages, the illustrations show it all.

[Caitlin Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a good job of portraying the two separate stories going on. The left side is the realistic story of the mom complaining and the right side is Shirley's imaginations when in the bath tub. Both sides of the story are narrated in framed illustrations. The concept of the book was a little bland and it seemed to be written for the parents more than the children.

[Miriam Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time to get out of the bath, Shirley is the type of book where the illustrations say a lot more than the text. These illustrations will cause you stop and let you take in the whole image.
The overall tone of this story is lighthearted and maybe a bit humorous. I think is will be a great story for younger readers.

[Beatriz Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a mother who complains to her daughter about not showering and cleaning up for herself. Throughout the story, illustrations Shirley floats away to a secret watery place beyond the plughole where knights ride horses, and kings and queens float around their castles. The voice I heard was Shirley's mother.

[Kirsten Sawyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is all about parallels. With Shirley having fun in her universe to her mom in the real world. Her mom is just coming right after her to clean up her mess. the illustrations are all about the mom vs Shirley.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book, it was really funny.

When you’re young, you can have some wild imaginations.

[Portable · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Burningham's books are always thought-provoking, sometimes a little confusing, and often hilarious. Time to get Out of the Bath, Shirley, and its companion book Come Away from the Water, Shirley deal with the life of the imagination. Shirley's mother is calling her for bath-time, but Shirley is not listening. She is in an imaginary world of knights and adventures, slipping down the bath pipes to find all kinds of fantastic things. The pages offer opportunities to contrast the real life with imagined life as Shirley's mum says one thing while Shirley is imagining another. Great for exploring imagination and for sharing during our Unit of Inquiry into stories.Where's Julius? is another great book that explores similar concepts.

[Tara Sheehan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is in landscape layout, with white bordered pages. The endpages feature sets of pipes, which to me, was a good hint of the adventure that Shirley goes on in the bathtub.There seems to be a mixture of mediums used, however, pencil is definitely the most popular. The most interesting aspect of the book to me was the contrast between the colorful illustrations that Shirley imagines and the very plain illustrations that feature Shirley's mom. I thought that the very plain and boring illustrations of Shirley's mom was symbolic of living the life of an adult. Overall, it is a decent story to inspire children to get lost in their imaginations.

[Lindsay Larsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a landscape book. What is interesting to me is the way that the illustrator compared and contrasted what was actually happening in the story with the mother, and what Shirley was imagining on the other page. The two page spreads gave us the opportunity to see what Shirley saw, and what Shirley was thinking about. The page with the mother has washed out plain colors and what Shirley imagines is veyr colorful and light. All of the pages have borders, as if we are able to see what is going on but not be a part of it. Shirley is not inviting us to be imagining with her, only to see that she is.