Time for Bed

Bathtime and bedtime for Kieran, a small black boy, is an occasion for flights of the imagination and procrastination, aided and abetted by his profusion of toys. It is two-and-a-half hours before his patient but increasingly tired mum gets him off to sleep. This is not as simple a story as it at first appears. The text is a dialogue between mother and son; there is much to see in the realistically depicted scenes of domestic chaos and many gaps for the reader to fill. A clock emphasises the time Kieran takes to finally settle down. More experienced readers will probably cope but others may need help to appreciate all that is going on.