“Is it time yet?”
Children’s books about waiting and patience.
The moment
My child cannot wait.
Waiting is hard for young children. The skills it takes, like holding back and keeping a goal in mind, aren’t there at birth. Children build them slowly, and they keep growing through the teen years and into early adulthood.
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, InBrief: Executive Function
What are they waiting for?
If it feels like it will never come
Waiting
Kevin Henkes Ages 3 to 6
Goodreads 4.00/5 · 6,516 ratings (checked 2026-10-06)
Five toys sit on a windowsill. The owl waits for the moon, the pig for rain, the bear for snow, the puppy for wind, and the rabbit just likes looking out. Seasons pass, storms come and go, and each thing they’re waiting for arrives.
Why it fits
The whole book is calm waiting and noticing what changes outside. It gives your child something to do with a long wait: look out the window and watch.
Before you read: A visiting toy elephant falls and breaks partway through and doesn’t come back. Sensitive children may want to talk about it.
Recommended by Multnomah County Library staff list · Story and parent notes
Reading it tonight
- Before
- Read it at an ordinary time, not in the middle of a long wait.
- While
- Read it as a story. If your child brings up something they’re waiting for, ask what would make the wait easier.
- After
- “What would you watch for, if you sat on the windowsill?”
- Next time
- “Let’s look out the window while we wait, like the toys.”
If something that takes days or weeks
Frog and Toad Together
Arnold Lobel Ages 4 to 8
Goodreads 4.27/5 · 46,308 ratings (checked 2026-10-06)
Toad plants seeds and shouts at them to grow. Frog tells him the shouting is scaring them. So Toad keeps them company instead: he lights candles, reads them stories, sings and plays music, and falls asleep. When he wakes up, the seeds have come up.
Why it fits
Toad starts out as impatient as any child, and the story turns that into something to do while you wait. It’s an early reader, so a 5- to 7-year-old can read it to you.
Before you read: Toad thinks his hard work made the seeds grow, which is part of the joke. The book has five short stories; this one is called “The Garden.”
Recommended by Plugged In · Story and parent notes
Reading it tonight
- Before
- Read it at an ordinary time, not in the middle of a long wait.
- While
- Read it as a story. If your child brings up something they’re waiting for, ask what would make the wait easier.
- After
- “What did Toad do instead of shouting?”
- Next time
- “It’s still growing, like Toad’s seeds. What can we do while we wait?”
If they have to wait quietly
Owl Moon
Jane Yolen Ages 2 to 6
Goodreads 4.23/5 · 44,995 ratings (checked 2026-10-04)
A girl goes owling with her Pa on a snowy night, long past bedtime. Pa calls for an owl and nothing answers. They walk on to a clearing, and she stands quiet and still while he calls again. An owl answers and lands on a branch above them.
Why it fits
The waiting is part of the adventure. The girl stays quiet and still, and the owl comes.
Before you read: It’s slow and hushed, which suits ages 5 to 7 better than younger children. If your child is nervous about the dark, look at the night pictures together first.
Recommended by The Picture Book Teacher’s Edition · Story and parent notes
Reading it tonight
- Before
- Read it at an ordinary time, not in the middle of a long wait.
- While
- Read it as a story. If your child brings up something they’re waiting for, ask what would make the wait easier.
- After
- “How did the girl help the owl come close?”
- Next time
- “Let’s be quiet and still, like the girl waiting for the owl.”
If a new baby is on the way
There's Going to Be a Baby
John Burningham Ages 3 to 6
Goodreads 3.64/5 · 559 ratings (checked 2026-10-06)
A boy’s mother tells him a baby is coming in the fall. All year he asks when it will come and what it will do, and imagines it causing trouble. Slowly he gets curious about it, and at the end Grandad takes him to the hospital to meet the baby.
Why it fits
It shows the whole long wait, season by season, and lets the boy have mixed feelings about it. His mother takes his worries calmly.
Before you read: The boy jokes that the baby might get eaten by a tiger at the zoo. It’s played for laughs, and his mother doesn’t scold him.
Recommended by ReadPlus · Story and parent notes
Reading it tonight
- Before
- Read it at an ordinary time, not in the middle of a long wait.
- While
- Read it as a story. If your child brings up something they’re waiting for, ask what would make the wait easier.
- After
- “What did the boy wonder about the baby?”
- Next time
- “The baby is still a long way off. What do you wonder about?”
What we checked
We look for a good story, a clear fit for the moment, and what happens while a character waits. Our screen checks rewarded tantrums, adults doing the fixing, dangerous behavior without consequences, boundary violations, harm played for laughs, deception or entitlement, exclusion or stereotypes, and fear left unresolved.
Every pick here spends most of its pages on the waiting itself, not on complaining about it. Toad shouts at his seeds for a page, then finds better things to do. In Waiting and Owl Moon nobody complains at all. In the new-baby book the boy says dark, funny things about the baby, and his mother stays calm. These recommendations rely on sourced story accounts; we have not read every page of these editions. Goodreads ratings describe reader response and do not replace those checks.
Also on this page
Not quite it?
We don’t have a book yet about waiting your turn in a game or a line, or about waiting for a parent to come back. For sharing a toy, try the sharing and turns page.
How we chose these books
We start with parent and educator recommendations, check what happens in each story, and match books to the moment ourselves. A book can open a conversation. It can’t replace the help a family sometimes needs.