Just a Minute

Illustrated by Jack E. Davis
Simon & Schuster, 2003
Hard Cover Picture book, 32 pages
Ages: 4-8

When Johnny’s mom sails away past the purses and plates in Bindle’s Department Store, she says she’ll be “just a minute.” But then the seconds tick by or is it hours, days, years! Johnny grows a foot or more, buys a house on the hill, gets married and has five kids and still Mom isn’t back. What will he do now that the continents have shifted and the sun is a cinder of vermillion?

Reviews

Publishers Weekly
Thanks to Becker's (An Ant's Day Off) rhythmic, comically feverish prose and Davis's (Marsupial Sue) merrily macabre mixed-media illustrations, readers get sucked into this vortex, right along with the hero. "Had a week gone by? Or even more?" wonders Johnny, as calendar pages whirl around his head and he grows stubble on his chin ("Was it snowing? And who was that fat man ho-ho-hoing?"). In the hero's surreal adventure, "He grew a foot or more, got married, had kids, and bought a house on the hill, waiting in Bindle's department store." Davis pulls out all his signature Grand Guignol stops as he depicts the fellow about to be swept away by rising seaswhen at last Mother reappears with a new outfit, totally oblivious to her son's inner torment and ready to consume some more. As Rod Serling himself might say, Johnny's nightmare is over, but the shopping has just begun. This over-the-top tale about pint-sized fear and loathing will likely have kids nodding and grinning in recognition and agreement.

School Library Journal
The sometimes-rhyming text moves along at a fast clip and the cartoon illustrations, drawn in colored pencils, add to the fun. This funny story is sure to strike a chord with children who have waited endlessly for someone or something.

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