"'Time is relative' serves as this volume's premise and punch line as readers follow a little boy with round eyes through his day, and five-minute time frames--usually imposed on him by the adult world--shrink and stretch depending on the circumstances. The time frame is long when the boy's mother needs to handle some boring bank business--"Five minutes is forever," write Scanlon and Vernick ( Dear Substitute )--but it's way too short when there are puppies to see in the pet shop window ("Only five minutes?") or there's a chance of winning a carnival fishing game ("Seriously. Hang on"). The crisply paced and smartly varied vignettes build to a sweet closing moment, when the father extends a snuggle and bedtime story by an extra five minutes. Tallec ( What If. ), working in smudgy hues of blue and green acrylic paint punctuated with orange and red, puts his protagonist through a wide range of comically dramatic poses. Funny and astute, the volume represents five minutes well spent." -- Publishers Weekly "From play time to chore time, children and adults alike will sympathize with the young protagonist as the child vacillates between interminably long and painfully brief five-minute stretches in daily life.

The child writhes with discomfort in line for the bathroom and jumps up and down with impatience at suppertime, both circumstances children will instantly recognize. Careful pacing helps to stretch out five-minute eternities and provide funny juxtapositions, as in two contrasting scenes at the dentist's office. The book also opens itself to exploration of concepts of emotional intelligence, patience, and the passage of time. An accessible story that entices readers to slow down and enjoy a moment (maybe five?) in its company." -- Kirkus Reviews "As the title suggests, this is a very quotidian exploration of the lofty notion of the relativity of time as it plays out in a young kid's life. Scanlon and Vernick effectively riff on the simple yet clever notion, building it up, seesawing dramatically between the extremes, and deploying some droll phrasing ("Five minutes is a waste of five minutes"). The acrylic and pencil art has a European flair in its wide-eyed, elongated figures and snub-nosed cars, but our hero's histrionic body language (prostrate with horror at the post office, levitating with impatience as dinner cooks) is universal. Kids will immediately relate and chime in with their own examples of fleeting and interminable intervals.

" -- BCCB.