ALA Booklist (Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

Marco's an interesting bird. Red-feathered, beady-eyed, baseball-capped, and surrounded by a million toys, chemistry sets, musical instruments, and board games, he has far too much to do to follow his mother's bedtime edict. Just think of all the better ways to spend one's time! So begin the wild fantasies, each one piggybacking on the other until all sense of time is joyously lost. Marco dreams about painting his masterpiece, which leads to plans for discovering new fish (like the Cube-headed La-Di-Dah), which leads to the invention of underwater paint, which leads to other inventions like invisibility gum, which leads to . . . well, you get the idea. Soon his genius becomes too much, and Marco freaks: Couldn't he just have five teeny-tiny, eentsy-weentsy, bitsy-witsy, small, little, miniature, microscopic, shrimpy, measly MINUTES?!? The irreverent asides of the doodly watercolor-and-gouache illustrations betray Chast's New Yorker cartooning background, and to swell effect. Kids will recognize the disgruntled bristle of Marco's plumage and agree: life is unfair! Parents, meanwhile, will tell them to go to bed anyway.

Horn Book (Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2011)

Marco doesn't want to go to bed--he doesn't have time. He still needs to paint a masterpiece, invent invisibility gum, etc. Cartoonist Chast brings her affectionate, anxious line and fascination with the eccentrically ordinary to an original riff on bedtime avoidance, a story in which it seems perfectly normal that Marco is a little red bird and his mother a human.

Kirkus Reviews

It's just too hard to go to bed for Marco, a parrot with BIG DREAMS. Will he become an artist, discover new fish and invent underwater paint so he can paint his discoveries...or something else? Chast's signature cartoon illustrations are just as busy as Marco's brain. They are filled with the sort of details that will amuse readers and listeners, allowing new discoveries with each reading. The first colorful spread contains hints of all that follows: a half-pipe with skating bird, watercolors, rocket, bowling balls, mountain-climbing book and much more. The clock urges Marco to bed on each page, friendly at first ("Come on, Marco!") and then, as the hands move past 8:00, with more urgency ("Marco, you're not listening to me"). Youngsters who are developing a sense of humor have no better place to start than here. The cartoonist rewards their desire to chuckle with Marco's wobbly-eyed, full-on stares and huffy bedtime-avoiding pouts and fits in hilarious speech bubbles for good measure. Perfect for repeated bedtime reading. (Picture book. 3-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Marco, a revved-up red parrot who behaves like a boy, cannot pause for sleep. At bedtime, he is preoccupied with everything he could be doing instead. Marco envisions discovering new fish (like the ""cube-headed la-di-dah""), painting underwater (""Naturally he would need to invent underwater paint""), and a career in bowling (""If that wasn't cool, Marco didn't know what was""). ""Marco, aren't you forgetting about something?"" asks his alarm clock, which starts chasing him at 7:45 and is still ticking an hour later. At the height of his indecision, Marco's saucer eyes spin like pinwheels as he wonders, ""How could he do it all?"" As in her New Yorker cartoons, Chast (The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z!) relies on voice-bubble asides and cartoon doodads to present an array of tempting, absurd options. Fidgety Marco finally snoozes, and he's shown skateboarding through space, along with the alarm clock, whose hands have vanished. Dedicated ""to the real Marco,"" a bird in Chast's household, this study in hyperactivity recommends relaxation, though the fixation on overwhelming choices could leave some readers as breathless as Marco. Ages 4%E2%80%938. (Aug.)

School Library Journal (Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)

K-Gr 3 Marco the parrot is too busy for bedtime. Cartoon illustrations in watercolor, gouache, and ink show his human mother from the waist down and a talking alarm clock urging him away from his playthings. Thought bubbles depict his dreams of painting, scientific discoveries, skateboarding, and bowling. The images attempt to show that Marco has too many plans and no time for sleeping. However, cluttered with lines, objects, and color, the pages lack a focal point. Likewise, the story lacks development in plot or character. Adult fans of Chast's New Yorker cartoons may appreciate this loose artistic style, but most children will be better satisfied by Anna Dewdney's Llama, Llama Red Pajama (Viking, 2005), Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Little Hoot (Chronicle, 2008), Barney Saltzberg's Cornelius P. Mud, Are You Ready for Bed? (Candlewick, 2005), or Peggy Rathmann's 10 Minutes Till Bedtime (Putnam, 1998). Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD