Baasansuren, B. (2007). The 25th hour. Monsudar, Mongolia: Admon Printing Company.

This book is written in Mongolian, which does not use the Latin alphabet. I had a little bit of trouble understanding what was happening in this story since I could not rely on the words. Also, the pictures are different from what I am used to, and I was not always sure of what they represented. The information in English about the book tells us that the children in the book are traveling to the world of storytelling during a 25th hour that was made for them by magicians. From just looking at the illustrations, it seems that some sort of extraterrestrial creatures (are they the magicians?) open the door to that 25th hour world to four children. They pass through a clock, and meet a wise old man, then start riding on flying creatures. They arrive at a wedding of two black birds, then go on riding along what seems to be shooting stars. After that, they are almost sucked into another place, but they are saved (I think) by one of the extraterrestrial creatures, and continue on their adventures where they meet sea-like creatures. Finally, they come back home through the same clock they left through.

The pictures are extremely colorful, and the colors are very vivid. There is almost nothing square. All the illustrations are rounded, and the delimitations between children, creatures and the world they are in are very crisp. This is a surprising book because it looks different to “western” eyes, but it could be used to have children imagine and tell what is happening in the book.

The style of pictures seems to be oriented towards younger children, so I would say this book would be best for ages 3 to 6.