Polly and the Screen Time Overload by Betsy Childs Howard

Polly cannot wait to spend her birthday week at her Gammy and Gamp’s farm. She loves playing with her cousins, riding their horse, gathering eggs, and more. When she arrives at the farm, she has a present waiting for her from her aunt- an iTab. Polly is so excited and spends the rest of the day playing on her new birthday present. She even stays up late to play that night and continues the screen time into the next day until her iTab goes black and needs to be charged.

While she is waiting, she heads outside to find Gamps. Gamps explains to her that even good gifts can be used incorrectly. “God has given us many good gifts, but he says we can only truly enjoy them when they don’t take over our lives.” Polly then finds her cousins playing in the hay bales and spends the rest of the afternoon with them. Polly decides that she doesn’t want to miss anything while she’s at the farm, so she puts it away for the rest of the week and loved every minute at the farm.

This brief picture book tells a simple story that illustrates a common problem for children (and adults!): too much screen time. The illustrations are absolutely adorable and will captivate your children with pictures from a farm. While this is a Christian title, the sentence quoted in the summary is the only one that points to God, except for a verse of scripture in the preliminary pages and one on the back cover. I do wish the author had leaned into the spiritual aspect a bit more, perhaps bringing in the idea of making something an idol and what that means.

It is definitely a conversation starter and could be a helpful resource if moderating screen time is a common subject in your home. Overall, this is a lovely book that your child will likely enjoy because of the simple story and inviting illustrations. It has a good reminder about what we miss when we give screens too much of our time.

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1. Was it wrong for Polly’s aunt to give her an iTab for her birthday?
2. What does the word idolatry mean?
3. Was Polly making her iTab an idol?
4. What rules do you have about screens? Why?