Children's books and activities

Time and Time Travel

Do you know any kids who are curious about the science of clocks and sundials, or who wonder what time travel would be like? We've gathered up a great collection of books, activities, apps, and websites for learning all about time and time travel.

Try pairing fiction with nonfiction books and exploring different genres (like poetry and biographies) and formats (like graphic novels and audio books). You'll be creating your own "text sets" — collections of texts focused on a specific topic, such as telling time and time travel. Reading widely in this way helps children build background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

Time and Time Travel

Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Clocks and More Clocks

By: Pat Hutchins

Age Level: 3-6 years old

When the hall clock reads twenty minutes past four, the attic clock reads twenty-three minutes past...

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Dinosaur Train

By: John Steven Gurney

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Does Jesse travel back in time or is an imaginative jaunt when he boards a train with a...

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Telling Time

By: Jules Older

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Time isn't an easy concept for kids to grasp, but young readers will delight in learning all...

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The Clock Struck One: A Time-Telling Tale

By: Trudy Harris

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Concept Book

When the clock strikes one, a fun-loving mouse runs up the clock. But what happens when the clock...

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Time Flies

By: Eric Rohmann

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Fiction

A wordless time-travel adventure and a meditation on the scientific theory that dinosaurs were...

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Time Train

By: Paul Fleischman

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Join Miss Pym's students as they take a memorable train trip across the U.S. to a time and...

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Train Leaves the Station

By: Eve Merriam

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Between the rolling cadences of this choo-choo and the vigorous swaths of color left in its tracks...

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Water in the Park

By: Emily Jenkins

Age Level: 3-6 years old

A catalog of ordinary events that occur in a park between sunrise and sunset, these scenarios...

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What Time Is It, Mr. Crocodile?

By: Judy Sierra

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Mr. Crocodile has big plans for finally catching — and eating — five pesky monkeys, but those...

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Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Big Papa and the Time Machine

By: Daniel Bernstrom

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Fiction

A heartfelt journey into African American history. When a little boy is feeling afraid to go to...

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Carnival at Candlelight

By: Mary Pope Osborne

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Jack and Annie head to a Venice of long ago on a mission for Merlin to save the city from a...

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Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House series)

By: Mary Pope Osborne

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Share adventures with Annie and her brother Jack when they accept missions from a magical library...

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cover of "Flotsam" showing a fish's eye

Flotsam

By: David Wiesner

Age Level: 6-9 years old

A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam — anything...

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Gold in the Hills: A Tale of the Klondike Gold Rush

By: Candice Ransom

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Slide back to 1897 with Mattie, Alex, and Sophie where they meet a young writer named Jack London...

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Haunted Castle on Hallow's Eve

By: Mary Pope Osborne

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Annie and Jack go back in time to Camelot to a haunted castle to find the Stone of Destiny. Their...

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cover of "How the Sphinx Got to the Museum" showing stages of the journey

How the Sphinx Got to the Museum

By: Jessie Hartland

Age Level: 6-9 years old

The history of the Hatshepsut sphinx: from its carving in ancient Egypt to its arrival in the...

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It's All Greek to Me

By: Jon Scieszka

Age Level: 6-9 years old

In this installment of friends known as the Time Warp Trio, Joe, Fred, and Sam meet key figures...

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Just a Second

By: Steve Jenkins

Age Level: 6-9 years old

In just a second, a bat can make 200 calls, a black mamba snake can slither 24 feet, four babies...

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Me Counting Time: From Seconds to Centuries

By: Joan Sweeney

Age Level: 6-9 years old

How long is a second? Can you count a minute? What is a decade? How many years are in a century?...

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My First Book of Time

By: Claire Llewellyn

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Chapters on the passage of seasons, growing, and measuring time provide background, context, and...

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Nine O’Clock Lullaby

By: Marilyn Singer

Age Level: 6-9 years old

When it's 9 P.M. in Brooklyn, it's 10 P.M. in Puerto Rico, and midnight on the mid-atlantic. Far...

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Tar Beach

By: Faith Ringgold

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Cassie doesn't have to actually go to the beach; she's got her very own "tar...

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cover of "The First Drawing" showing a caveman drawing on a cave wall

The First Drawing

By: Mordicai Gerstein

Age Level: 6-9 years old

An illustration of a contemporary boy with pencil in hand stands in front of a blank piece of...

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The Magic School Bus: In the Time of the Dinosaurs

By: Joanna Cole, Bruce Degen

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Everyone's favorite science teacher is back as Ms. Frizzle takes her class on a journey...

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Ticktock Banneker's Clock

By: Shana Keller

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Nonfiction

The story of 18th century African American scientist Benjamin Banneker and his three-year...

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Time Zones

By: David Adler

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Why is the time different in New York and in Tokyo at the same moment? How time zones were...

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Age Level: 9-12 years old

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A Wrinkle in Time

By: Madeleine L'Engle

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Fiction

How the Murray children search through time to find and save their missing scientist father...

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Anno's Sundial

By: Mitsumasa Anno

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Explains how the earth's movements around the sun and the resulting movement of shadows have...

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Dinosaur Empire! Journey through the Mesozoic Era

By: Abby Howard

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Fiction

Travel back in time to the age of the dinosaurs with fifth-grader Abby and her neighbor—Ms....

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Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time

By: James Gurney

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Fiction

In this fantasy classic, young readers imagine an isolated island inhabited by shipwrecked...

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Knights of the Kitchen Table (Time Warp Trio series)

By: Jon Scieszka

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Fiction

As a gift from his magician uncle, Joe receives The Book setting into motion a series of...

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On the Blue Comet

By: Rosemary Wells

Age Level: 9-12 years old

The Great Depression changed everything for 11-year-old Oscar and his widowed dad. Oscar's...

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illustrated cover of "The Secrets of Stonehenge" showing stonhenge

Secrets of Stonehenge

By: Mick Manning

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Why was this amazing monument erected? How did our Stone-Age ancestors bring such massive stones...

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cover of "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" showing an intricate lock

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

By: Brian Selznick

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Image and text combine in a unique presentation to tell the story of an orphan boy who lives...

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