Tag / time travel

by cholliman1

“The Shape Of Thunder” by Jasmine Warga

Title: The Shape Of Thunder

Author: Jasmine Warga

Publication Info: 2021 Balzer + Bray (Harper Collins)

The Plot: Cora and Quinn have been best friends since they were very young. Now 12 years old, their friendship has been ripped apart by a violent event. A year after the incident, the girls have not spoken, and Quinn obsesses on finding a way to “fix” everything. She lands upon the idea of time travel, perhaps finding a wormhole in a magical location and traveling back a year to prevent the violence. As she researches this idea, she realizes that she will need Cora to help her with this project.

My Take: This is a tender book that examines that damage to relationships after a violent event. Author Jasmine Warga does an excellent job making us feel the pain of these girls and their ache for putting things back the way they were. Canny readers will understand that their project is doomed from the start. Warga’s powerful message is that while we cannot undo the past, we can struggle to make sense of it and hold on to the love that we still have. Highly recommended for mature tweens and teens.

One Interesting Note About The Author: Jasmine Warga’s idea for The Shape of Thunder started from her concerns about gun violence, a public health hazard that afflicts many young people regardless of skin color or zip code.

by cholliman1

Time Travel Programs

Historical Time Travel Programs

As a history buff, I wanted to find a way to get kids excited about learning about the past.  I came up with the idea of a Time Travel Program in which children could interact with a famous historical figure in person.   Audiences would actually witness me, as a Time Traveling Mad Scientist/Librarian, travel to the past using a spray painted refrigerator box as a “time machine.”  I would then bring the famous person back to the present day where audiences would be able to ask them questions about their lives and times before they were returned to their respective historical periods.

The “back in time” scenes would be done by projecting a video on a large screen at the program to be shown after I crawled into the “time machine.”  This would give the illusion of time travel.

These Time Travel Programs have been very successful and I have managed to kidnap such figures as Henry David Thoreau, Lewis and Clark, the aviator Richard Byrd, and Patrick Henry.  View the below video to see me bring the writer Edgar Allan Poe to my library!