Time to... is a very short series of books by Mo Willems (who also wrote the Pigeon Series and the Elephant & Piggie series), consisting of only two books: Time to Pee! and Time to Say "Please"!.
Each book focuses on a whole crowd of children learning to do some basic preschool skills (in Time to Pee!, it was going No. 1 in the bathroom, whereas in Time to Say "Please"!, it was polite words such as 'please' and 'thank you'), and the way they learnt it was because a bunch of mice held up signs with the instructions.
Time to... provides examples of:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: The mice mainly go au natural, but occasionally you will see one wearing something like a hardhat or sunglasses.
- An Aesop: The books have a moral of being polite and following standards.
- Alliterative List: The list of possible reasons to say "please" in Time to Say "Please"! are: when you want a turn, when you want a toy, when you want to borrow someone's truck, and when you want to try something for the first time (although the last item on the list is "stop", which doesn't alliterate).
- Backhanded Apology: Defied in Time to Say "Please"!, which says that "sorry" is another useful word, but you have to mean it.
- "Brave the Ride" Plot: Or rather 'brave the ride' scene. One scene involves a little boy asking his reluctant father for a go on the roller-coaster, but then asking to stop when he's actually on the ride.
- Civilised Animal: The mice do thinks like throw parties and can obviously write, yet they still can't speak and are mouse-sized.
- Here We Go Again!: Time to Pee! ends with "At least, until you get that feeling again."
- Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: Time to Pee! ends with a P.S. saying that it's OK if you don't get it right the first time.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The mice often hold very flashy signs for the relatively minor topics, and it's exaggerated in Time to Pee! where they throw a party to celebrate peeing.
- No Name Given: None of the characters have names.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: In Time to Pee!, the signs that read, "Boys can stand" are blue, while the signs that read, "Girls should sit" are in pink.
- Potty Dance: In Time to Pee!, two girls and one boy are seen with their knees together while a boy is seen with his knees together and his hands on his crotch.
- Potty Failure: The end of Time to Pee! says that it's fine if you don't get it right the first time, and we see a puddle of pee.
- Tempting Cookie Jar: In Time to Say "Please"!, a little girl is tempted to steal a cookie from the jar, but the mice instruct her to say "please" instead.
- Toilet Training Plot: Time to Pee! is about learning what to do if you need to pee.
- Wingding Eyes: When the blonde girl in Time to Say "Please"! wants a cookie, her eyes turn into cookies.
