I Can't Wait!

by Amy Schwartz

Don’t wait to read this picture book about three friends who are each waiting for something worthwhile—and practicing patience while they’re at it!

William was waiting on his front porch.
Annie was waiting in her backyard.
And, in his house on the corner, Thomas was waiting, too.

But what are they each waiting for? When will it arrive? These three stories of three eagerly waiting friends come together in the end, where everything—especially friends and family—is worth the wait.

Genres: Picture Books, Friendship, Childrens, Family, Fiction

40 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2015

About the author

Amy Schwartz is the author and illustrator of many picture books for children, including Begin at the Beginning; Things I Learned in Second Grade; Bea and Mr. Jones, a Reading Rainbow feature; What James Likes Best, recipient of the 2004 Charlotte Zolotow Award; and a glorious day. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband Leonard S. Marcus, and their son, Jacob.

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

PreS-Gr 2- Three cherry-faced children wait. William sits on his front step, giving pause to his passing neighbours. With each conversation he reveals another clue as to what he's waiting for. Annie plays in her backyard with her dog wondering why Eddie hasn't come. Could it be she did something wrong? Thomas passes his time by thinking of names for the new baby; he doesn't even consider that it might be a boy. I Can't Wait splits into several parts, the introduction on the first page, the individual stories of the children, and their final reunion to share their expected things. As it turns out, each was awaiting a person...father, friend, baby. Images come in bunches as well as the full-page variety, with white backgrounds to cleanly separate these illustrations and their rainbow range of colours. Gouache and ink give a childlike appeal, a trait which the dialogue endorses. Schwartz does a service by acknowledging the complexity of emotions. No matter what, waiting is hard, yet different circumstances can produce different flavours of the same emotion; eager anticipation, fretting impatience, and happy contemplation are the three portrayed here. VERDICT Neither exciting, nor moving, but a useful book that addresses a topic relevant to many children.

*reviewed for School Library Journal

[Mindy Mukolwe · Rating 2 out of 5]

We are reading this book as a part of the 1000 books by kindergarten challenge. Many are borrowed and some are owned but we wanted to track the journey so that we would know which ones we loved the most!

Owned or Borrowed: Borrowed
Number of times read: Once
Age read: 5 months

What we loved: I liked that the different characters were each waiting for something special. It was an easy book to read in an engaging way but Baby A would have enjoyed it more if she was older.

*Possible spoiler*

Themes to be cautious about: One of the characters was afraid her friend did not like her anymore because of how she looked, her abilities etc. It turned out that the friend did not think negatively of her for those reasons but I would be cautious about how this negative self evaluation came across to my child and would honestly not want to expose her to it unnecessarily.

[Iris Cardozo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about three children who individually wait for someone, the author does not give many clues of who they are waiting for but as you keep reading it you start to imagine who it could be. At the end of the story the author combines all three children playing together at a park, I feel like this story would be a little confusing for young children to understand the meaning behind the story and why it connects.

[Donna Mork · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three different kids wait for three different things: dad to come home, friend to come to play, and new baby brother to come home from the hospital. Later they all play at the park. They leave to go home and say let's play again tomorrow. I can't wait.

[Anthony Dedrick Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute book

A nice way to teach children about patience and the importance of it. My daughter thought it was funny because she had none

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Waiting is hard! This is a very sweet book, although a bit disjointed.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an okay book about the difficulty of waiting. I love the idea of a book about this subject, but I think this particular book fell short of engaging children about the subject.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just cute.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers meet three different kids who are each waiting on someone special. Each gets their own story and then mesh together in a final one at the park.

[Dawn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Three children are waiting for something. William is waiting for his papa to get home and when neighbors stop to ask what he is waiting for, he gives little clues.
Annie is waiting for her best friend Eddie to come over, but when he is late she questions why.
Thomas is waiting for his new baby sibling to be born. His grandmother has all sorts of distractions for him, including picking out a name (which doesn't get used).

I really didn't like having a character (and of course, it's the single girl character) questioning her physical features as the reason that her best friend isn't coming over to play. Also not a fan of the illustrations, and I found it odd that such traditional names were used. Made it seem like an old, dated book.

[Alyx Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I really, really appreciate the diverse characters in this book, I thought that this book was complicated and was not succinct in the message. I found it confusing and would imagine if I found it confusing, children would also find the message scrambled. Also, if the book is "I can't wait," you'd think that we would see more actions of the characters that they couldn't contain their excitement. I found this book boring at best and too wordy. Classic example of telling as opposed to showing.
Age: Preschool
ECRR: Read, Narrative skills

[Paula · Rating 2 out of 5]

Neighbors William, Annie, and Thomas are all at their houses, each waiting for something very different and special.
Different chapters for the different kids who all come together in the park at the end for the book.

[Evan Childress · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is so hard to wait! William, Annie, and Thomas each have a waiting experience chronicled in this lively tale. The small pictures and heavy dialogic text don't make it a great choice for storytime, but young listeners will enjoy poring over the pictures and the surprise ending!

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked some of these stories more than others- stories of friends and family. The boy waiting for "something amazing" was my favorite. The girl waiting for her friend was cute, too. I did enjoy how all the stories intertwined in the end. All stories about waiting.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't tell who the audience for this is. It looks like it's supposed to be for toddlers, but it reads like a preschooler book. I even considered reading this section by section to my toddler pals, but I don't see that happening. A real tricky one.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

In separate stories, three children are all waiting for something special. The fourth story brings them all together in simple but colorful illustrations.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that there are three unique waiting experiences that kids can compare and contrast with each other.

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinda wish the girl wasn't given the typical I'm-not-good-enough role.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bogged down by too much dialogue

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three kids wait for someone, then all their stories combine as they meet at the playground. Solid if unexceptional.

[Marta-Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Papas, friends, baby brothers, and play time are always worth the wait.

[Andréa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was kind of weird.