If you can get over the Minutes basically bullying the monkey in Michael Hall’s Monkey Time, the learning about telling time (with the use of a lot of minutes) and the science facts at the end, are fun.
And that is the story. We learn about how one Dot is a Minute; 10 make up ten minutes and so on. But the dots tease monkey to the point when (spoiler) he catches the last minute he wants to eat it. Okay; I did and did not see that coming. I knew a joke of some kind was coming, as I did see coming the horrible pun: Minute to Monkey, “Now that you have a minute, what are you going to do with it?” The adult will groan at the corny wording, the child will think it is funny Monkey wants to eat the minute.
The signature illustration style of Hall is here in all its glory. There are the basic shapes, basic colors and minimal detail. There are hidden delights (see the praying mantis, the boa constrictor, the iguana doing what they do best) in most corners. You can use the pages to expand your child’s mind by asking “What is the shape of monkey’s head?” or “What color are the minutes?”
At the end, there is a short afterwards that talks about the jungle animal. There is also a game to play (What Did Animal X eat?). A cozy book that perhaps works best one-on-one instead of a group but could be used in the kindergarten classroom as well.