The Time It Took Tom

by Nick Sharratt, Stephen Tucker (Illustrator)

Take a tin of red paint. Take a boy called Tom. Mix the two together. How long will it take Tom before the trouble starts? This colourful story introduces the concept of time to young children.

Genres: Picture Books, Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Nick Sharratt is the author-illustrator of numerous books for children, including The Foggy, Foggy Forest and Dinosaurs’ Day Out.
He grew up in Suffolk, Nottinghamshire and Manchester, with his four siblings. He attended Manchester Polytechnic (now called Manchester Metropolitan University) where he completed an art foundation course. He was trained in graphic design at St. Martin's School of Art and took his later inspiration from the pop and graphic art of the 1960s, which he experienced as a child.
He lives in Brighton, England.

Reviews

[Tamsin]

Love this book! - And not just because Nick Sharratt is the illustrator...

'The Time It Took Tom' is an amusing story about Tom, who has a lot of time on his hands, finds a tin of red paint and decides to paint the living room... A great book to use when looking at the topic of time.

[Kenzie Bloomer]

This is a fun and interactive book which would need to be projected onto a whiteboard for the pupils to be able to see the pages due to a small text size. This could open a discussion about how this book is different to others read in class and why (lots of text on one page could suggest there was a lot of work to be done in the form of listing). As a teacher, I would explain how a pupil should never play with paint unless given permission from an adult because they could get in a lot of trouble acting he way Tom did. Discussions could be open about whether paining the living was a good idea or not