Time Flies!

(Image by Celestine Chua, Creative Commons License https://www.flickr.com/photos/celestinechua/14434197266/)

I haven't been here for awhile! Yes, I missed you, and I'm sure you've been busy with this and that, just as I have been. Have you thought about how sometimes time zooms by and other times it crawls? And overall, our human time on earth is just a blip!

One thing I've been doing since I was last here is immersing myself in picture books. You know how much I love them if you've read my book for librarians & teachers, Teach Writing to Older Readers Using Picture Books. And I felt the need to learn what's currently being published.

One fascinating picture book about time was originally published in Portugal in 2008 and made it to this country in 2015 thanks to Enchanted Lion books--The World in a Second by Isabel Minhos Martins and illustrated by Bernardo P. Carvalho. 

Though reviews bill this book as being for ages 4-8, the style and concept are appropriate for older children and even adults. "While you turn the pages of this book, the world doesn't stop...." And the book shows what happens around the world while you are turning the book's pages. Each spread could be a story unto itself. Visual clues let the reader know where the scene is taking place. The final page shows the locations and times referenced in the book. This is the kind of book that expands one's thinking and sparks wondering about time, other people, other places, and the world around us.

A lilting book for younger readers, By Day, By Night by Amy Gibson and illustrated by Meilo So shows us how alike we are no matter where we live. We all wake up in the morning and go about our various ways of making a living and spending time with friends and families. The illustrations show people of various cultures throughout the day, working, playing, making friends, learning, experiencing life, until it's bedtime--and then another day begins.

If you'd like to be more philosophical about time, here's an article about an experiment that proves time does not exist.

Still, we measure time, both as individuals and as a society. One thing we know--it goes by.

How do you measure time?

Time Keeps on Slippin' Into the Future

(By Motacilla (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

It's been awhile since I posted, what with work, family, holidays, and all. What I've been told is true--time goes faster the older I get. As a measurement, each minute is the same length. But as we experience it, some minutes drag on for hours, while others are a mere blip.

The time-space continuum has interested and puzzled people for ages, and the idea of time travel captures our imaginations. Award-winning author Connie Willis has written several time travel novels, including the one I just read, To Say Nothing of the Dog. This delightful romantic romp was first published in 1997 and won the Hugo and Locus awards in 1999. It was nominated for the Nebulae Awards in 1998.

The characters go back and forth from England in 2057 to Oxford in Victorian times to WWII Coventry during the bombing. The main characters, Ned Henry, an intelligent bumbler trying to do the right thing--whatever that is in his current time period--and Verity Kindle, a smart beauty also trying to do the right thing, also prod the reader to consider the impact of an individual on history and what difference small incidents can make on the future. What if Terence had not met his intended? What if Princess Arjumand had drowned? What if Ned and Terence had not pulled Professor Peddick out of the river? Though we are assured that the time space continuum repairs problems so that things turn out the way they should, sometimes it takes years.

What if we fail to smile at the person we meet, hold open a door, make a call, or give a helping hand where we can? We can't rewrite history, but we may be able to make the present--and the future--a better place. Happy New Year!

In the meantime, Steve Miller is right, "time keeps on slippin' into the future..."

Goodbye, Daylight Savings; Hello, Standard Time

Puppy Watson and I are still on Daylight Savings time. An extra hour of sleep? I don't think so! He wants to play at 4 a.m. and needs to go out at 5 a.m.

(photo: By Matteo Ianeselli (Own work) [CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Trento-Mercatino_dei_Gaudenti-alarm_clocks.jpg)

Not all of our clocks got changed, so I am wandering around trying to orient myself, and asking the question the group Chicago asked all those years ago:


How is your household adjusting to the time change?