Starred Review for Publishers Weekly (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Caldecott Medalist Rathmann (Officer Buckle and Gloria) builds a captivating series of mini-plots from a basic countdown premise with few words and abundant action. A child--who could be a girl or boy--plays with an energetic hamster family with just 10 minutes to go before she's tucked into bed. As the child's father idly reads the newspaper and clocks the passing time (""""9 minutes till bedtime""""), a rotund hamster in a blue conductor's uniform echoes each announcement with a tiny megaphone. Meanwhile, the hamster parents and their 10 active offspring, distinguishable by numbered yellow-and-red striped jerseys, frolic throughout the house. Rathmann endows each with a distinctive personality: Numbers 3 and 4 are twins, 8 shows only its rear end and stroller-bound toddler 10 declares """"eat"""" and """"more!"""" After additional golden-brown rodents arrive (in Goodnight Gorilla fashion) at the front door (raising the count to well above 50), the child reads this very book to a vast audience, takes a bath surrounded by furry beachgoers (and lotion, ants and sunglasses galore), then hurries through other pre-bed rituals before a final cry of """"Bedtime!"""" Every engrossing illustration provides an exercise in numerals and Where's Waldo?-style concentration; die-hard fans will not only count Gorilla among the throngs, but Officer Buckle opens and closes the show, and young readers will note Rathmann's return to Napville for this nocturnal adventure. If Rathmann has her way, young slumberers will be counting hamsters, not sheep, as they drift off to sleep. Ages 2-6. (Sept.)

School Library Journal Starred Review

PreS-Gr 2-Tales about stalling bedtime abound but none wag more cleverly than Rathmann's humorous picture book. The countdown begins for the spiky-haired, bunny-slippered boy who lives at 1 Hoppin Place when his father announces, "10 minutes till bedtime." Suddenly, a family of hamsters, all decked out in numbered jerseys, arrive at the door and are greeted by a hamster tour guide (the child's pet), who shouts, "All aboard!" As the boy's oblivious, newspaper-reading father issues a minute-by-minute countdown, the tour bus heads to the kitchen for a snack, stops in the bathroom for cleaning up, and ends up in the bedroom for a story. Just as the boy begins to read, the tour guide shouts, "More coming!" Hordes of vacationing hamsters arrive in a variety of vehicles, and the frenzied pages overflow with a series of amusing sideshows. Finally, the child shouts, "Bedtime!" and everyone clears out before his father's goodnight kiss. Picture a combination of Rathmann's Officer Buckle and Gloria (Putnam, 1995)-both of whom make cameo appearances-and Martin Handford's Where's Waldo? (Candlewick, 1997) and that conveys the zaniness, style, and ingenuity at play here. Children will pore over the comical details and follow closely the antics of the numbered hamsters, each one with a personality of its own. Every aspect of page design adds to the fun, including the endpapers that feature hamster family photos. Rathmann has another hit, one that will extend years of bedtime deadlines, but who's counting?-Julie Cummins, New York Public Library

ALA Booklist (Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 1998)

Busy is the operative word for Rathmann's latest picture book, with some of the setup beginning rather awkwardly on the page preceding the title page. The freewheeling, cartoonlike artwork tells the tale, picturing the activities of a group of hamsters, whose 10-minute Bedtime Tour coincides with the countdown routine of a little boy getting ready for bed. Mom and Dad hamster arrive with their 10 hamster children, each one distinctive in some way--number 6 wears a backpack; number 8 never shows its face; number 10 is the baby, etc.--presumably so that each can easily be spotted as the events unfold. The gimmick is the sort that kids love. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold up here: the hamsters are too small, the numbers on their shirts aren't always clear, and after hordes of other tiny hamsters unaccountably arrive for the last few minutes of the tour, finding a favorite character becomes more frustrating than fun. Children will love the more obvious gags--a hamster swinging from a jockey-shorts parachute, glimpses of old friends Officer Buckle and Gloria (who have nothing to do with the story), and the fact that the hamster family decides to stay--but such amusing particulars aside, this is more chaotic than comfortable--and despite the title, it is not the best choice for easing kids into bedtime. (Reviewed October 15, 1998)

Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 1999)

A boy's father loudly intones "10 minutes till bedtime," as the boy and a hamster peer out a window at an approaching precession--an influx of vacationing hamsters come for the "10-minute bedtime tour." The tourists mimic the boy's bedtime routine minute by minute, followed by a mad scramble to exit as the countdown ends. Rathmann's delight in detail is evident in the laugh-along hamster antics.

Kirkus Reviews

Rathmann (Officer Buckle and Gloria, 1995, etc.) offers a loony look at the shank of one child's evening in this manic picture book. The story is in the pictures; the text consists of the calling out of the countdown of the last ten minutes to bedtime by a boy's father, comfortably ensconced in his armchair and behind a newspaper. In the newspaper and on a computer screen, though, readers glimpse an ad for www.hamstertours.com. The boy's hamster has apparently offered the ten-minute bedtime tour to every hamster in the world, and while the boy snacks, brushes his teeth, and reads a story (this very book, as it happens), more and more hamsters arrive, in toy cars and oatmeal-box trucks and on foot. By the time it is "2 minutes to bedtime," our hero either realizes he's forgotten his bath or decides to give the multitudinous hamsters more of a show, so he leaps into the tub and out, dries himself, uses the potty, gets back into his green-striped pajamas, and into bed shouting an answering "Bedtime!" to his father's cry. The hamsters melt away and the father comes in for a goodnight kiss. The colors are clear and cheerful; the boy, with his saucer eyes and fuzzy slippers, will enchant any child who has listened to a similar countdown to lights out. (Picture book. 2-7)