Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey. New York: Puffin Books, 1957.  0-1405-0201-7

Annotation: Follows the activities of two children spending their summer vacation on an island off the coast of Maine.

Media: watercolor

Rating: 5th-6th 4Q/3P

Literary Device: Allusiion, Imagery, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Simile

Allusion -

     The narrator alludes an accepted, given, belief in God: “In the quiet of the night one hundred pairs of eyes  are watching you, while one air of eyes is watching over all.” (p. 28)

Identified as a potential challenge - imposing religeous views in a secular format. This wonderfully poetic book which is full of delightful imagery and literary devices as it takes us through a summer vacationin the natural world of Maine, slips in the narrator's religeous opinion as if it is everyone's, including the young impressionable reader who wants, like all of us, to belong. The use of the 2nd person strengthens the challenge because it's not only the narrator who experiences God in nature, but YOU.

lvanburen/6-09