For example,
you can travel to 1970s Cambodia with Vaddey Ratner in her book In the shadow of the banyan . In this poignant novel, a young child relates
the story of her family’s tragic experiences during the civil war in
Cambodia. Each of the members of the
child’s extended family is expertly characterized, so that the reader comes to
know and love them, just as the young protagonist clearly does. The story parallels the author’s own life.
You can go
to the 2008 Olympics with Shawn Johnson in her book Winning Balance: what I’ve learned so far about love, faith,
and living your dreams.
You can visit
pre-war and WWII France in Helen Gremillon’s The confidant.
This tale is full of twists and turns as the reader gradually discovers
the truth of what transpired between the main characters. When you’re done reading it, you’ll want to
start reading it all over again to look for clues!
You can travel
the globe in one of Ken Follett’s books. In Fall of Giants, the reader is propelled from Russia
to England, Germany and the United States, following the lives and fortunes of
several inter-related families during WWI.
The family sagas are continued in the second book of the series, Winter of the World.
Perhaps the
greatest journey of all, travel To heaven and back: a doctor’s extraordinary account of her
death, heaven, angels and life again: a
true story by Mary
C. Neal. Can’t think of a better example
of ‘travel through time and space’ than that!
Want to give
gift of time travel to your children?
They could journey
out west to Minnesota with young Almanzo Wilder and his family (first introduced in the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House” books) in a new novel
by Heather Williams called Farmer Boy Goes West.
They could travel
to 2008 Baghdad and meet Nouri and his cousin Talib in The white zone by Carolyn Marsden. Snow falls in
that city for the first time in anyone’s living memory. Will this new experience help the Sunnis and
the Shiites forget that they hate each other?
Boys might
want to travel down the St. Lawrence River in 1943 with 16-year-old Scott and
his friend Adam in a riveting tale by Curtis Parkinson called Man Overboard! Or they might wish to take a train
from Chicago to South Carolina, and then across the country to Oregon with
13-year-old Levi Battle as he searches for his father, a black paratrooper
during WWII in Shelley Pearsall’s unforgettable tale Jump into the sky.
Girls may
wish to visit the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia in 1953 to meet Lydia
Hawkins as she moves to a coal mine with her aunt and uncle in the novel Child of the mountains by Marilyn Sue Shank.
So be sure
to visit the library, and enjoy your free time travel!
Photo courtesy
of Google images
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