Time Is When

What is time? This question, asked nearly fifty years ago by author Beth Gleick’s young son, prompted her to answer in a picture book for preschoolers, using simple language and familiar scenes: “In one second, you can bounce a ball, or jump, or say hello, or turn a page.”Beth Gleick’s clean turn of phrase cleverly explains the passing of seconds, minutes, hours, on up through seasons and years. First published in 1960, this book is lovingly re-illustrated by collage-artist Marthe Jocelyn, who pays homage to the original art while simultaneously creating a world of her own, cutting patterned papers and printed fabrics with whimsy, ingenuity, and precision of, yes, time. . . .