Time of Wonder

by Robert McCloskey

The spell of rain, gulls, a foggy morning, the excitement of sailing, the quiet of the night, the sudden terror of a hurricane, and the peace of a Maine island as a family packs up to leave are shown in poetic language and vibrant, evocative pictures.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Nature, Summer, Classics, Family

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

John Robert McCloskey was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He both wrote and illustrated eight picture books and won two Caldecott Medals from the American Library Association recognizing the year's best-illustrated picture book. Four of those eight books were set in Maine: Blueberries for Sal, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder, and Burt Dow, Deep-water Man; the last three all on the coast. He was also the writer for Make Way For Ducklings, as well as the illustrator for The Man Who Lost His Head.

McCloskey was born in Hamilton, Ohio, during 1914 and reached Boston in 1932 with a scholarship to study at Vesper George Art School. After Vesper George he moved to New York City for study at the National Academy of Design.

In 1940, he married Peggy Durand, daughter of the children's writer Ruth Sawyer. They had two daughters, Sally and Jane, and settled in New York State, spending summers on Scott Island, a small island off Little Deer Isle in East Penobscot Bay. McCloskey's wife and eldest daughter Sally are reputed to be the models for little Sal and her mother in Blueberries for Sal (1948), a picture book set on a "Blueberry Hill" in the vicinity. Three others of his picture books are set on the coast and concern the sea.

Peggy died in 1991. Twelve years later on June 30, 2003, McCloskey died at his home in Deer Isle, Maine.

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE IT! This book is poetry. Robert paints a picture of Island life. Most of my life I have wanted to live in a coastal town. I don't know what it is about life on the water, it seems so rhythmic. They live by high tide and low tide. The weather is always so important because it affects life. I also want to live in Maine someday. This book calls to some deep part of me. Island life and living in nature.

I love the art work that looks like water colors - I could be wrong. It is a long book, but you can read it quickly. It sets a mood and a tone and you feel like you are going through the storm too.

This is one of my new favorite books. I think my excited rubbed off on the kids because they both gave it 4 stars too and they were a little squirmy at times. This is one of my favorite Caldecott books I've read. I'm so glad I found it.

[Ronyell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read this book as a child, I did not really care for this book since I thought that this book was too boring to sit through. However, when I read this book later on as an adult, I realized that this book was a truly moving book. “Time of Wonder” is a Caldecott Medal award winning book from the great mind of Robert McCloskey and it is about how a family spends their time on the islands enjoying the beauties of the island. “Time of Wonder” may seem a bit too boring for smaller children, but it is truly one of Robert McCloskey’s most beautiful and moving books ever created!

Robert McCloskey has done a great job at making the story extremely dreamy and beautiful as he describes the girls’ adventures on the island in a dreamy and poetic fashion, giving the story a beautiful feeling, the type of feeling you get when you go to a wonderful place. Robert McCloskey’s illustrations are much different in this book than in his other books since the images are actually colored instead of the usual black and white images that he usually uses for most of his books. Robert McCloskey’s illustrations are truly realistic and beautiful as he shows images of the island showing its beauty towards the two girls. The images that stood out the most in this book are the images of the ferns growing and the images of the hurricane coming towards the island. The images with the ferns growing shows the ferns uncurling themselves from the ground, which is truly a beautiful sight and the images of the hurricane coming to the island shows the storm making a strong wind that violently blows at the family’s house and you can see the waves being blown so violently and the family being blown by the wind as the father tries desperately to close the door.



Smaller children might be bored with this book since the beginning is a tad bit too slow and the action does not really come around until the scene of the hurricane coming to the island. Also, the length of this book is much longer than most picture books and many small children might become bored with this book. Parents might want to read one section of the book for the first day and then read the second section of the book the next day so that way children would not become so easily bored.

“Time of Wonder” is a beautiful and enchanting book about enjoying the true beauty of nature that will have many children respecting nature so much more. I would recommend this book to children ages five and up due to the slow beginning.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful! This sparkling story transports you to Penobscot Bay, Maine where you experience the joys and wonders of the changing seasons, from the gentle unfurling of the ferns as spring draws to a close to the fun of swimming in the height of summer to the awesome power of a hurricane as autumn draws neigh. I love that the story feels timeless in one sense, with all the connections to nature, night and day, the changing tides, the passing seasons. Yet it's also a wonderful glimpse into the era in which it was written, capturing the 1950s in the clothing, the cars, little nuances here and there (and perhaps, most notably, a time when families were able to take long vacations together, spending an entire school break at a vacation house). Even though the illustrations are excellent, and won the Caldecott Medal, it was the story itself that captivated me most--I just loved how it was told, and the words, more than the illustrations, are what transported me to Penobscot Bay (and, oh, how I'd love to visit in person one day!)

I wasn't sure at first how I felt about the story being in second person narration yet the characters were both girls -- it seemed to me it would be more inclusive if one was a boy and one a girl, to address all of the "you"s in the readership. Thank you to my GoodReads friends who explained to me that McCloskey had two daughters so the book was likely for them, and with them in mind. It feels even more special to me, now, thinking of it like a father telling a story to his daughters, reminiscing about past summers, or perhaps painting a picture of a summer vacation to come. Very sweet!

[Book Concierge · Rating 5 out of 5]

On an island off the coast of Maine, in Penobscott Bay, two girls and their parents find much to enjoy about the sea, the shore, and the forests. Even a hurricane-force gale is a source of awe and wonder. But when summer is over, it’s time to pack up and move back to the city.

McCloskey is probably best known for Make Way for Ducklings, but I think I like this book even more. Here the reader explores an island with two girls. We watch a summer shower approach, and get wet when it begins to sprinkle; on a foggy morning we watch the lobster fishermen going out to check their pots. Ferns unfold under the trees, and when the fog lifts we go for a sail in the bay, accompanied by dolphins who frolick next to our sailboat. We join other kids on the beach, diving into the water, building forts and sand castles. We enjoy a summer unfettered by schedules or school work, exploring the natural world.

Of the Caldecott winners I’ve read so far, this has the absolute best illustrations. They are simply beautiful – in color, detail, scope, feel. Some are bright at a summer day, others muted by “fog.” The stars sparkle in the night sky, and the waves pound the shore during a storm. I particularly loved how McClosky showed a coming rain cloud approaching across the bay, shading one island after another. Just lovely images.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the very first book I remember, and when I read it, the voice in my head is my father's. It's also the very first book that I read all by myself. I don't remember learning *to* read, but this book is wrapped up in the magic of reading for me. And its magnificence is perhaps one of the reasons I'm the reader I am today. McCloskey's words and watercolors combine to make magic. His turns of phrase are memorable and delightful. The feelings of a childhood's summer are herein captured with both playfulness and gravitas. There's a hurricane, and there are bellyflops. There are cranky old men and cranky old seabirds. It's all happening here, all the time. And it's always waiting for me to come back.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful story about a summer on an island in Penobscot Bay, off the coast of Maine. The illustrations are terrific and the story, while a bit long, is enchanting.

I would recommend reading this in a few installments with children so as to keep their interest. Our girls got quite a bit bored with it (despite the exciting hurricane and exploring its aftermath), but I hope they will give it another chance someday.

This book was selected as one of the books for the January 2015 - Quarterly Caldecott discussion at the Picture-Book Club in the Children's Books Group here at Goodreads.

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely classic story. Those old-fashioned illustrations are beautiful!

[Alex Schultz · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Time of Wonder” is about the life at a bay, starting with a massive storm that rushes over the island. The season changes and so does the atmosphere of the people. Everyone comes out in the sun and the beaches are full of people. At nightfall, the sky is full of stars and a big moon. The children run and play in the woods. At the end, the families move and pack their stuff, since it is the end of the summer.
The water color in this book was a better job than most water color picture books I have read. I was in awe when I read a couple of the pages and caught myself just looking at the images. The overall quality of the book did not stand out to me as I read, so I won't probably have this in my classroom. If someone really liked beaches and sailing, I might recommend this book.

[Chaitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son and I absolutely loved this book. It's not much more than an account of magical summers spent in an island off the New England coast. There's everything from foggy mornings that obscures everything to lazy summer afternoons spent diving off the rock at the end of the island to evenings spent wandering around in the boat. There's even an end of the summer storm after which it's time to head back home and to school. It truly sounds like a time of wonder, well loved and wonderfully described and illustrated. We read this several times when we had it out of the library.

[Moses · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, evocative watercolors and a sweet, atmospheric story.

[Victor The Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven’t read a picture book as deep and serene like “TOW” in years. It follows a family spending their summer on a Maine island made up of smaller islands connected together, and later preparing for a later summer hurricane. Every page’s passage is told with poetic feel and McCloskey’s paintings look so moving and vibrant. A perfect picture book for your summer reading. A (100%/Outstanding)

[Savannah Ostler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations and a fun story. One of my absolute favorites from my childhood

[uma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I miss Maine. There’s a certain kind of magic there.

[Alex Baugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems appropriate to end Summer Reading 2016 with an old favorite in my house. Written in 1957, this classic story is about one family's summer vacation on one of the many islands around Penobscot Bay, Maine.

It isn't really a story as much as it is a chronicle of observations about different aspects of island life and the activities of two sisters on the island, all narrated in the third person from the point of view of one of the girls. It begins with dark clouds moving across all the islands until they reach the one where the family is staying, watching as the rain approaches and finally begins to fall, chasing the sisters inside. A foggy morning greets them the next day, but it eventually gives way to a bright sunny warmth, as the girl marvels at the sights and sounds of nature all around her.

What follows is a summer filled with happy days of sailing, exploring, swimming, and playing with friends, observing the natural world of birds, fish, animals, flora and fauna usual to a Maine island, side by side with the people who work and live there - lobster fishermen, herring and scallop fishermen, the people who run the supply stores.

As summer winds down, a hurricane blows in. And then it is time to pack up and go home, back to their school year routine.

Time of Wonder is a delightful look at one idyllic summer. McCloskey's text is poetic, simple, lyrical and dreamlike. The watercolor illustrations are done in an almost ethereal style that harmonizes so perfectly with the text, This is clearly a place McCloskey loved, and in fact, he did spent summers there with his wife and two daughters. So yes, like Blueberries for Sal, Time of Wonder does seem to be based on some real life events.

This has always been one of my Kiddo's favorite books, and I can see why. We spent every summer at the beach when she was growing up and she always said it was her favorite time of year because it reminded her of Time of Wonder (even though we were on the Jersey shore and not Maine). And this book really does capture that feeling of summer by the ocean. Each time I read it, I can smell the salt air, hear the seagulls cry, feel the waves crashing against my legs, and yes, battening down the hatches for a hurricane (we've been caught in a few of those, including this year).

McCloskey has left us with just the right words to sum up summer and welcome autumn:

Take a farewell look
at the waves and sky.
Take a farewell sniff
of the salty sea.
A little bit sad
about the place you are leaving,
a little bit glad
about the place you are going.
It is a time of quiet wonder -

This book is recommended for readers of any age
This book was purchased for my personal library

This review was originally posted on Randomly Reading

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter and I have read Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey, as well as his book One Morning in Maine, which features a slightly older Sal and her baby sister Jane. In Time of Wonder, Mr. McCloskey does not name the two sisters who are summering on a Maine island, but his watercolor pictures look a great deal like Sal and Jane as I would imagine them as older girls.

I loved this book growing up and I love it now. I, too, wanted to see rocks that had been scarred by glaciers (not realizing that the Pacific Northwest is lousy with them), and I wanted to discover an ancient shell midden in the aftermath of a hurricane, after the tree covering the midden had been uprooted and blown over.

My daughter liked discovering Sal and Jane and their dog in each picture -- sometimes small and off in the distance, sometimes very much in the foreground. We liked seeing the crab scuttle (now that the tide had come in) where they were making sandcastles that morning, and we were both frightened a little when the hurricane blew open the door of the cabin and the family had to struggle to get it shut. I certainly plan to reread this book with my daughter as she grows older. We had to read it in two installments because it is quite long -- over 60 pages.

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel bad giving only three stars to a McCloskey book, but this is one that I just had a hard time connecting with. It's not that there's anything "wrong" with it -- the artwork is great, and it is so very evocative of harbor life along the Maine coast. I think my problem is that I tried to read it as a child and it just lost me. I think perhaps the "age appropriateness" of the illustrations and the text doesn't really match. It's a picture book, but wordier than most, and doesn't really have a clear narrative until close to the end.

In the opening pages, the text goes into a lot of geography, naming off islands and points in the bay that have little to no bearing on the rest of the story, and I imagine it's hard for many kids to stay engaged through this part. I think it's one of those books that's definitely more for older children, and kinda has to grow on you in order for you to like it. It's still wonderful. My 22-month-old sometimes brings it to me and says "winder wonder, winder wonder!" But I can't read it to her or she loses interest... I just have to try and describe the pictures instead. By the time my kids are old enough to really "get" the text, they might consider themselves too old for picture books. Hopefully not. I'll definitely keep it around and find out.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I revisited this book, particularly as the season noticeably turns from Indian Summer to winter's eve with reports of snow in the valley within a couple of days.

What child and adult doesn't delight in the vacationing, the exploring, the discovering of a place other than one's own year-round home? Although I haven't been to Maine, my visit to Nag's Head, North Carolina, gave me some of the feel of a beachy living. (Somehow I couldn't compare this East Coast beach experience that I did experience vicariously while reading this book for my four-month stint living in the beach town of Laie Hawaii for four months.)

Robert McCloskey writes and illustrates such a beautiful book, truly a time of wonder even when reading it. One feels the ocean spray, the salty crust on one's dry skin, hears the waves and the buoys bobbing, the rowboats streaming, the porpoises snorting and the birds laughing. One feels the misty fog and sees the sunny residue as the fog lifts. One feels the tension in the air as a hurricane approaches and the relief as it passes and the joy of appreciation of the land before and the land after. It really invokes one's many senses and is a pleasure to read.

[Mike Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't help comparing this to The Ox Cart Man. Each tells the story of a year in the life of a family, but McCloskey includes wonder with the routine. The hurricane adds drama, but even in the mundane the language gives life to the story rather than recording the events like an accountant for a strict miser that takes away food for each word used and adds a lash for any imagination. McCloskey's poetic language flows in spirit with the marine world he portrays. The rhythmic progression animates his beautiful illustrations in a symbiosis so familiar to the seaside. All the illustrations share a common character, but they too change with the story so that within the style a different tone is used for many of the moments. I particularly loved the pulled back view of a single boat plying the calm but beautifully threatening waters around the islands contrasted with the two depictions of the hurricane winds outside in the dark and invading the light of the little home. This book shows how to tell the story of the life in a place and make you care. The Ox Cart Man should spend a year in Penobscot Bay.

[Caroline Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

o Summary: This is a very in depth picture book that is beautifully written. It talks about the islands around Maine. It is a book about the summer spent at Maine and all of the adventures at the ocean, beach, and surrounding areas. It also talks about a huge storm that occurs and all the clean up and adventures of the aftermath.
o Grade level: 5th
o Appropriate classroom use: This is a good book to read after a summer break where kids may have went to the beach. They could relate to it that way. Also could be read after a storm or when learning about how weather effects things. Could be tested over.
o Individual students who might benefit from reading: Any student who enjoys the content at hand
o Small group use: Have on the bookshelf for kids to read during their free time. Also, if it is going to be tested over have a copy for kids to study with.
o Whole class use: Read as a whole class if it is going to be tested over.
o Related books in genre/subject or content area: When searching for books related to Time of Wonder, books about rhymes come up.
o Multimedia connections available: There is a video on YouTube of this book.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the only Robert McCloskey books I did not read for the project I did on him in graduate school. I’m not sure how I skipped it, since it is definitely the kind of picture book I usually love. It reminds me a lot of All the World, which I frequently name as my favorite picture book of all time. McCloskey captures the same carefree childhood innocence Frazee infuses into her illustrations for All the World, and both books have a timeless quality that extend their relevance far beyond the decade of their publication. Time of Wonder was published in 1957, but aside from the somewhat dated-looking print, there isn’t much to date this book to the 1950s. My absolute favorite illustration in the entire book is the moment when the hurricane bursts the door of the house open and the wind and sand sweep everything “hair-over-eyes across the floor.” I’m really impressed by the way McCloskey was able to capture so much movement in a still picture. This book has sort of an awkward ending that feels sort of incomplete, or tacked on, but aside from that, it’s near perfect.

[Guadalupe Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time of wonder by McCloskey Robert
Genre: fiction, picture book Reading level: P-up grades Format: good



Time of wonder by Robert McCloskey is a book that really makes the reader feel like they are experiencing what the book is illustrating. For example when the book says “now take a deep breath” this makes the reader actually take a deep breath because the reader doesn’t know what is about to happen once the page is flipped. This book can make many children relate to the story because many times trips don’t turn out as planned. In the case of this book the weather was horrible, but even though the weather was horrible the family had a good time. Most of the time children that experience trips with their family can relate to this story. I can relate as well. Lastly, the picture illustrations show different moods the reader can experience while reading the book. This book can be used in the classroom so that students can share their own trip experiences.

[Robert Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caledcott Medal (1958)

Robert McClosky paints a portrait of a languid summer spent on a Maine island, surrounded by the natural beauty of nature and wildlife, lobster boats and sailing schooners. These are the halcyon days, and McClosky's art beautifully captures this bygone time in bright and tranquil art and rhythmic prose. Summers end is marked by the onset of a hurricane, which transforms the landscape of the little island and unearths relics from the past. As summer ends and the family prepares to return to civilization, there is time for reflective thought, such as Where do hummingbirds go in a hurricane?

There are two subtle but clear references to God/religion, which is not to my taste, but was certainly not unusual for the time it was first published. Still, I could do without it.

[SamZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

1958 Caldecott Medal. Favorite Illustration: When the girls row their boat across the lake at night, with all the stars shining above them.
This is a quiet, peaceful, almost poetic little tale of a family's summer on an island. There isn't any dialogue and very little happens in the book, but it is very sweet and makes you want to take some time to look around you and appreciate the little moments with your loved ones that makes life so precious. I enjoyed McCloskey's illustrations quite a bit, although I think I prefer his pen drawings more - they are so much more expressive! However, I think that the muted watercolors were much better suited to this particular story.

[Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book today because I'm sad because I broke up with my girlfriend Sunday because I'm unemployed and don't feel good enough. So I'm home alone, pacing around the apartment, reading this book aloud, and I'm getting soaked into it. Then the phone rings, and it's the most personable telemarketer you could ever imagine. "My dad handles the gas bill," I told her eventually. When will he be home? "Well, usually around 2-ish." Alright, she said, we'll call back around 3 so he has a chance to sit down and have some coffee.

I finished the book, and I felt better -- like there's boats, and hurricanes, and friendly people out there just waiting to be hugged and "How'd you do'd?"

[Tricia Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reread Time of Wonder last night. It's not my favorite McCloskey book, but as an adult I can definitely reminisce with the author. It seems like that's what he's trying to do with this story. I can picture him doing everything he describes. His pictures are lovely, not too entertaining, but complete the story he is trying to share. For a child not knowing or understanding life on an island, McCloskey succeeds in capturing how fun/exciting it would be to live off the Maine coast. I will keep this book among the rest of my McCloskey collection and pass it along to my grandkids.

[Jennifer (JenIsNotaBookSnob) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations. I feel like this very nicely captures what summer vacations to the ocean would have been like at this point in history. This reads a lot like my dad's stories of summer lake vacations in northern Michigan.

I didn't like how he illustrated some of the children, but, his landscapes are beautiful and atmospheric so he gets a free pass on the couple of awkward looking children.

Just such a bygone era, when there was the sort of free time to spend an entire summer somewhere in a cottage.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much liked this quiet story and meditation of a summer spent on a northeastern island summer home. This is one of the few picture book stories that is written in the second person: "you can watch a cloud;" "you hear a million splashes;" "you can hear an insect;" etc. The lovely watercolor paintings echo the text very well. The paintings have soft colors and a hazy look. This cozy story will be best suited to elementary age children as it is rather wordy.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fairly interesting story, I liked the poetic elements and how the author incorporated so many sights and sounds that you almost felt like you were there, almost. The illustrations were nice as well. A pretty good book, but probably not one I'd recommend.

*Taken from my book reviews blog: http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2008...

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I really loved the illustrations and the language was almost poetic, I had a hard time staying focused on this book. My children didn't care for it at all and in fact only listened to half of it and then asked me to stop reading. I read it all but kept finding my mind wandering. Perhaps the fault is mine but it didn't feel me with wonder.

[Deania · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice time in the summer and where as a family better to spend it on an Deer island. Getting ready for a hurricane and then the cleanup. Unfortunately the summer is coming to an end so they have to go back to their regular home. It is always great to take a scenic tour before you leave.