Procrastinator's Progress: On My Way to the Bath by Sarah Maizes

"BATHTIME!"

I DO NOT LIKE TO TAKE A BATH.

BATHS ARE BORING. EVERYTHING IS MORE FUN THAN BATHS.

And everything is what Livi does on the way to the bath. Her mom is waiting. The water is warm and sudsy. Her yellow rubber duckie is ready to ride the waves. But Livi has a few more things yet to do.

ON MY WAY TO THE BATH, I PASS THROUGH A JUNGLE.

A THICK, DARK JUNGLE.

OH, NO! QUICKSAND! I SWING TO SAFETY!

Mom grows ever more exasperated with her tardy daughter as the bath water grows tepid.

"TODAY, LIVI!!"

But the Livi's inventive imagination finds lots of ways to get to the bathroom. She turns into a snake and slithers out of the living room, flicking her long forked tongue at her brother. She decides to stop off at the TV room and construct a complete effigy of herself from her blocks, left conveniently all over the floor. She marches down the hall, a tuba player in a brass band.

BWWWAAAH!

"I MEAN IT, LIVI!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!"

But on the way she hears music from her big sister's room and steps inside to do her impression of a rock 'n' roller. Then she is a world class gymnast, executing perfect moves, a military leader rousing her guinea pigs to follow her to victory, Finally she arrives at the bathroom door, her fuming mother waiting beside the still unoccupied tub.

I AM A JUNGLE CAT.

I WAIT. I STALK.

I POUNCE!

ROOWWRR!

"GET IN!"

As parents know, the only thing harder than getting a procrastinating kid into the bathtub is getting the kid OUT! Suddenly the now-cooling suds are the most fun thing in the world because--(as all kids know) the next event is bedtime, and who wants to go there when there's so much fun still to be had? Sarah Maizes' new On My Way to the Bath (Walker, 2012) is a fresh and funny look at the battle of the bath, ably and comically illustrated by Michael Paraskevas, who brings Livi's suds-time fantasies hilariously to life as she slowly faces the inevitable dousing. And true to kid form, once in the water Livi's imagination is further fired by the possibilities. She's clean, she's still having fun, and she's staying put.

"OKAY, LIVI! TIME TO GET OUT!!

LIVI?"

I'M A SHARK....

This clever new addition to the annals of bathtime lit is a real charmer, right down to its delightful endpapers, with the opening vista a clueless rubber duckie, placidly swimming the suds, and the closing endpapers showimg that same oblivious duckie with a shark's fin cutting through the water, heading straight for him.

"... sure to be a crowd-pleaser in storytimes, classrooms, and laps everywhere," says School Library Journal.