[.ca] 10 Minutes Till Bedtime (ISBN 0399237704)

From Amazon.com:
"Ten minutes till bedtime!" Father announces from behind his newspaper. Out a picture window, his son and his son's pet hamster can see a hamster family (with kids numbered 1 to 10) approaching the house. "All aboard!" shouts the boy's prized pet, as his puzzled owner opens the door and the hamster tourists are loaded onto the special trolley. What the humans at 1 Hoppin Place don't know is that their cherished family pet has advertised on the Web (www.hamstertours.com) for a "10-Minute Bedtime Tour," and the hordes have only just begun to descend. "Nine minutes till bedtime," Father insists, oblivious to the burgeoning hamster parade. At the 8-minute marker, the hamsters and the boy are in the kitchen for a pre-bedtime snack. One little guy is standing on top of a fruit bowl, lowering a cherry cluster with a string and paper clip. Hamster number 10 is trying to feed an animal cracker to the boy's fuzzy bedroom slipper. "Seven minutes till bedtime!" reminds Father as creative tooth-brushing progresses. But what's this? It's the 5-minute countdown marker, and the faint light of hamster headlights appears out the window. More tourists are on their way! Buses, trucks, taxis, and golf carts full of rodents are driving up the sidewalk! Hilarious hamster hijinks ensue. If you're not seeing the appeal here, it's like this: each spread is turbocharged with dozens of winsome, adorable details that will keep youngsters giggling and entranced--and counting to 10--time after time. Peggy Rathmann, author of the Caldecott Medal-winning Officer Buckle and Gloria, offers readers a rollicking rodent romp that ends with a goodnight kiss and many, many closed eyelids. (Click to see a sample spread. Copyright © 1998 Peggy Rathmann, published by Putnam Books, a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.) (Ages 2 to 8) --Karin Snelson

The fun is in the details:
The sheer amount of details in the illustrations of this book will keep it fresh for a long time. From trying to find all 10 hamsters on every page, to the shadowy scene from Rathmann's "Goodnight Gorilla" hidden in the background - this book will keep your child entertained for multiple readings.

What fun!:
This is a really cute book, although there's not much reading involved. It's about a boy and his hamster who give a "10 Minute Bedtime Tour" to a family of hamsters. Each of the 10 little hamster children has a personality all his own, and it's great fun looking over each page to see what they are up to. (One of the hamsters is even a scrapbooker!)

Even better than Good-Night Gorilla:
When a friend told me that Peggy Rathman had written a book even better than Good-Night Gorilla I just had to see it. He was right. Ten Minutes to Bedtime is a wonderful book. The main character is a young child with a pet hamster. The hamster runs the Hamster 10-Minute Bedtime Tour. Well, as the book opens we see the first of the tour arrive. There are not many words in this story (unless you read the newspaper the father is reading), but the detail in the illustrations is superb. I have to recommend that readers do several things. First of all, you must read the article and ads in the father's newspaper. Next, pay attention to the first family (the kids all have outfits with numbers). Look at everything in the pictures! I was very pleasantly surprised by some of the details I found going on in the pictures (my daughter was worried about the kid's slippers). Buy it! Read it! Study it! You won't be disappointed!

Enjoyed by both a 6 year old and 2 year old!:
This wonderful book can be enjoy by toddlers and "Big" Kids. My 6 year old niece loved to "read" this book to her 2 year old cousin. The two year old would pick out hamesters and the 6 year old made up stories about them. Both children had so much fun "reading" this book together. The text is very simple - the pictures tell most of the story. And what stories they can tell! Have fun exploring out the pictures with your special little (or big!) one.

*Great* book, but get the hardcover vs. the board book:
My children adore this book, so we've read it many, many times. They still squeal with delight and laughter. There is so much detail, that you can't help but discover something new with each reading (keeping it entertaining for mom and dad as well as Junior). My one recommendation is that you buy the hardcover version versus the board book. We have both. The board book lacks some of the detail of the original.