NOW SOON LATER

This lucid, flowing book is equal to the challenge of making the passage of time easier for children—who mostly live in the here and now—to grasp. Each spread is composed of three panels, each captioned with a sentence that begins with the word now, soon, or later: ``Now it's time to take a nap. Soon you'll be up again, and you'll get dressed. Later you'll go out and see your friends.'' Grunwald also shows the relativity of time, depicting compressed moments in the day (waiting in line at the slide) and longer ones (the father going to and returning from work). Other nice touches are the carryovers from spread to spread (cookies are made in one, then eaten in the next), and the way simply flipping back to an earlier page presents the notion of the past. Johnson's fresh pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations are gently realistic, showing a small girl's day and the wealth of activities that mark it. (Picture book. 2+)