Impatient Patience: What I Tell Myself by Michael A Brown is the story of a little girl called Patience who happens to be the most impatient girl ever. She demands her food immediately when they go to a restaurant, she refuses to wait in line and when she refuses to slow down on her bike, she has a nasty accident and breaks her leg. Now Patience is a patient and must learn patience if she is to get through her time spent in bed. I think as well as being a story about not rushing things, it is also a good lesson on not rushing through childhood and taking the time to enjoy the things that you have. I particularly liked the pictures used, they are well-drawn and they will really attract children to the book. It is a quick read and would be excellent for a bedtime story.

Michael A Brown has written an entertaining tale with Impatient Patience: What I Tell Myself. It shows the consequences of our actions and how it is sometimes important to take our time or we can end up getting hurt. Patience learns this the hard way but it is up to her mother to make sure she understands the lesson. I think the book would appeal to young children in the 5-8 age range. I think the pictures really help to tell the story and that it works as an important life lesson. I would definitely recommend it. I think it could do well on the market.

Impatient Patience by Michael A. Brown, illustrated by Lovaa Garg, is an excellent learning tool to teach the virtue of slowing down. Patience is eight years old and likes to move fast. You can see the word play already, and as the story proceeds even more word play arises when impatient Patience becomes a patient. Patience doesn’t like waiting—in lines, in restaurants, while riding her bike, and during the healing process. So, Mr. Brown’s story is illustrative (with great illustrations) of Patience’s impatient personality. When she breaks her leg by going too fast on her bike, Patience becomes a patient and is forced to confront the results of her impatience and to learn the importance of slowing down. She discovers that “I want it now” is not only annoying to others but dangerous to oneself.

Michael A. Brown and artist Garg present this lesson creatively in Impatient Patience using clear examples, amusing nursery rhyme word play, and an engaging meter that will bring young readers back again and again. It’s a great tool for moms and dads too as Patience’s mother patiently deals with Patience’s impatience. The story is a good vocabulary builder also with such words as distant, complaining, attitude, approaching, agony and heal. Author Brown bases his stories on Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” and provides a chart that explains the system visually for adult evaluators. Impatient Patience will serve parents and teachers superbly in teaching the value of patience to impatient kids. And, maybe to themselves as well.