The Clock

An object’s purpose changes across the years in this picture book focused on functional and technological shifts. In a majestic turn-of-the-century train station, there hangs an ornate gold clock. Its steady ticking originally “kept the station humming, and the world moving,” Fong writes. But as the city grows, the station is eventually left dark, dirty, and abandoned. Then, one day, a flashlight illuminates the clock’s face, heralding a transformation: in architectural wordless spreads of construction and repair, the clock sits perched above arriving masterpieces. Once again, it presides, but with a different purpose: beckoning visitors to stop and savor their surroundings, revealed in the afterword to be Paris’s famed Musée d’Orsay. Making the importance of historic preservation accessible, it’s a work that demonstrates how past and present can keep perfect time together. Background characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)