Time Flies: Down to the Last Minute

by Tara Lazar, Ross MacDonald (Illustrator)

Overview

The team behind 7 Ate 9 and The Upper Case: Trouble in Capital City is back with another installment of their pun-filled detective noir Private I series. This time, Private I is in a race to find all the missing clocks in town!

In the colorful and letter-filled Capital City, there's never a moment's rest for Private I, the city's best investigator. Trouble seems to always have a way of finding him—trouble with a capital T. On this particular day, T tells Private I that his watch is missing. And T isn't alone—the citizens of Capital City have lost track of timepieces all over town! Can Private I catch the perp and make up for lost time before it's too late?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780759554924
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	04/26/2022
Series:	Private I , #3
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	1,068,843
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Tara Lazar wrote the first book in the Private I series, 7 Ate 9: The Untold Story, back in 2015. Wow, time flies! She is also the author of The Upper Case: Trouble in Capital City, Three Ways to Trap a Leprechaun, The Monstore, and more! She enjoys reading her stories in funny character voices. Tara lives in New Jersey with her husband, two daughters, and an adopted black cat who meowed at her back door and walked straight into her house. You can visit her online at taralazar.com.

Ross MacDonald illustrated the first two Private I books. He is the author and illustrator of Bad Baby, Henry’s Hand, Achoo! Bang! Crash! The Noisy Alphabet, and Another Perfect Day. Ross has also done illustrations and humor pieces for periodicals such as Vanity Fair, the New York Times, and the New Yorker, and has designed and created props for over 100 films and TV shows. He was born and raised in Canada and now lives in Connecticut. You can visit him online at ross-macdonald.com
 

Editorial Reviews

Wordplay and visual quips abound in this clever and uncontrived sendup of the detective noir drama…Time flies when you’re having fun reading this terrifically silly spoof. 
 —Kirkus

"This book’s wordplay and visual humor are just right for the intended audience; time is sure to fly with Time Flies in the story-hour mix."—Horn Book

“Emerging readers will enjoy the puns and wordplay…Old-fashioned fun to push kids into funny business; pair this with Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault’s Chicka Chicka Boom Boom or any in Eric Litwin, James Dean, and Kimberly Dean’s “Pete the Cat” series.”—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

06/01/2022

Gr 1–2—Teaming up for a companion title to 7 Ate 9 and The Upper Case, Lazar and MacDonald continue the gumshoe adventures of Private I. Illustrated with facial features, a felt hat, and a green striped tie, the letter I is the personified embodiment of a detective. "It wasn't long before trouble found me. Yep, trouble with a capital T." Private I is enlisted to solve the case when all the watches and clocks are being stolen in Capital City. Following the clues and interrogating the victims doesn't produce an immediate answer. Private I needs a solid lead, so he stages a trap for the time bandit to reveal his identity. The other characters in the story are also personified letters. Watercolors and colored pencil illustrate the pastel background of the city, while wood letterpress printing forms the solid letters. The story is fast-paced and easy to follow, lending itself to be read aloud. Some vocabulary words, such as "timepiece" and "culprit," may need to be explained to a young audience. Emerging readers will enjoy the puns and wordplay, especially if a little background in detective tropes is provided. VERDICT Old-fashioned fun to push kids into funny business; pair this with Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault's Chicka Chicka Boom Boom or any in Eric Litwin, James Dean, and Kimberly Dean's "Pete the Cat" series.—Monica Fleche

School Library Journal

2021-12-27
Private investigator I returns to solve a case of lost time in this new installment of Lazar's Private I series.

“After dozing in my chair, I had some time on my hands,” begins the bright pink anthropomorphic capital letter I, depicted in a simple serif font and sporting a fedora hat and tie. Opting to take a stroll in the not-mean-looking streets of Capital City, he soon discovers that there is something amiss—a thief is absconding with the city’s clocks and timepieces. Private I interviews victims, including the letter G, who humorously goes by the name Grandfather and owns a store called Grandfather’s Clocks.Then the solution dawns on I. He calls for a noontime town meeting in Punctuation Park (“You'll know it's noon when the sun's directly overhead,” I advises), and when a certain letter shows up early, intent on sabotaging the park’s sundial, readers discover that there’s more to the time-averse thief than meets the eye. Wordplay and visual quips abound in this clever and uncontrived sendup of the detective noir drama. Dramatic irony is humorously supplied by the fact that the illustrations hint at the culprit’s identity from the very first pages. Both the puns and the whodunit will help kids build critical thinking and literacy skills. The cartoonish artwork, rendered in watercolor and colored pencil with letterpress details, have a retro sensibility.

Time flies when you’re having fun reading this terrifically silly spoof. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews