Hurry Up!: A Book about Slowing Down

A child learns to change the pace in this playful picture book.

A brown-skinned child with energetic, straight hair wakes to “hurry up,” flies down the stairs, backpack in tow, and out the door to the school bus....Leaving school, getting home, starting homework, and taking the dog out all happen in a hurry—until the child and dog reach a meadow and “STOP. // Slow things down.” Looking closely at nature and the landscape, playing fetch, and exploring until the sun goes down become ways to slow it down, right through bedtime. The spare, rhyming text is fun to read aloud, and it conveys a too-familiar feeling of helter-skelter frenzy that settles into a…

Hurry up and buy this charming book.

Many people would benefit from the important messages urged in this book—slow down, breathe deeply, and take a walk in nature. Readers meet a child rushing to complete the responsibilities of each day. With hair flying and a backpack on, the child is always hurrying at home and at school in order to “win” and “reach the top.” Finally, a spread with just the word STOP brings a halt to the child’s breakneck pace. The child takes a break, makes a wish, goes on a walk, and listens to “the forest talk.” The rhymes in the latter half of the story are gentle and sweet, as the child and a steadfast…

Kids aren’t exempt from fast-paced living, especially not the brown-skinned child who stars in this prescription for downtime by the late Dopirak visualizes its opening words with images of the child dashing down the stairs and out to the bus: “Hurry up!/ Hurry down./ Hurry round and round... and round.”...Out for a walk, child and dog continue at the breakneck pace until “STOP!” appears in large letters across the sky, a message from the universe. A page turn reveals a world transformed and on pause....A long, luxurious afternoon ends at dusk as the pair head home. Neal’s visual pacing takes…