Follow the comings and goings of everyone who lives and works in the same building and enjoy the interactive search-and-find as we see what happens throughout the day.
Chihiro's detailed, kid-friendly paper cut artwork engages readers and includes them in her work. Here, she smartly focuses on what happens on the hour, which is the way children are first introduced to the concept of reading clocks.
February 20, 2023
Beginning at 7 a.m. and continuing to 6 a.m. the following morning, this neatly planned, interactive story tracks the movements of a city building’s inhabitants throughout the course of a single day. Looking through the windows of one three-story building with a large clock on its face, Takeuchi (Can You Find My Robot’s Arm?) depicts the activities of its toy-like, dot-eyed inhabitants, portrayed with various skin tones. A bakery and a barber occupy the gabled building’s street level; a clockmaker, a family, and a grandmother live in apartments above them; and an artist and a musician occupy the top floor. Each space contains furniture, pets, tools, and more. “Rise and shine,” play-by-play text begins. “The baker has already been up for several hours baking fresh bread for the day. Grandma is having breakfast with her friends.” Most pages conclude with a question, and enlarged vignettes on the recto reward careful inspection (Grandma’s “friends” are numerous cats, plus a color-changing chameleon). Conversational, cheerful prose recalls that of Richard Scarry in its attention to life’s small dramas (“The ice-cream truck is here./ Who wants ice-cream?”). As new things happen and scenes change, there’s always something else to see in this cozy chronicle, which asks questions, teaches time-telling, and gently nudges viewers to closely observe the world around them. Ages 3–7.