Time Traveling

After speaking with Sarah a few minutes earlier I made my way down the steps. The YMCA Jr. Lakers had finished their game and they were running around the front lawn with snacks and juice boxes in hand. Leisurely lounging on the lawn Janet occupies herself with Diana Gabaldon's Voyager. She had been waiting for her son, Dawson, to finish his game. What a great way to enjoy the sunny Saturday morning. Sun + Lawn + Book. Now that the game just let out she allows her son to enjoy the post-game snack with his buddies while she waits for her sister to arrive to pick Dawson up for an outing. Her sister had called, asking for directions. "It's right on Sunset and Shrader...right by the Cat & the..." I chime in with "Fiddle" in hopes that my 2 cents would help guide Janet's sister to her destination.

Voyager is the third book in Gabaldon's series. If I remembered correctly we spotted 8 or 9 pictured on an inside flap. Janet's read most of them. Quite frankly she's addicted. "I try to sneak in a few pages here and there every chance I get! I even read a few sentences of this book while I'm at a stop light, that's how much I can't get enough of these books! And plus, the law only mentions that texting and talking on your cell phone are illegal. It doesn't say anything about reading your book at the light..." Touche, my friend.

At this point I'm intrigued as to how this book has Janet teetering on breaking the law. The book, Janet tells me, is about time traveling to the 18th Century and it's a "romance adventure". Something about traveling to another time draws her in. One gets to follow characters that you grow fond of while getting a glimpse of a certain time in history.


Her son comes over, curious as to what is going on. Janet explains that I am interviewing her about her book. Dawson points towards the book on the lawn. "I bet if I read that book I could finish it in a week!" It turns out that young Dawson is quite a voracious reader himself. Unlike his mother, who admits to taking her time with books and savouring the passages, Dawson is a speed reader. He is constantly churning through different books. "He's been an avid reader since he was a little boy, even reading at a 3rd grade level while in kindergarten! An example of this was with the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. Janet's son plowed through the books and she even had him miss a class so that they could both meet the author at a book signing. They stood in line for a while but it didn't matter because Dawson was super excited to get to meet Osborne in person.

Not only are the books in the Magic Tree House series entertaining but they are also very educational. Janet teaches reading to adults and children and regardless of their age Janet never fails to have her pupils read a Magic Tree House book. The books follow Jack and Annie. They find a magic tree house in the woods where they find a massive library. The librarian? King Arthur's Merlin himself. The children grab books, read through them, point at a page and say something along the lines of, "I wish I could go there" then poof! They time travel to another period. (Yes, Janet realizes that time traveling seems to be a theme in her beloved books). The children in the book travel to the times of dinosaurs, knights, mummies, and pirates. And while they are there they are instructed by Merlin to go on missions, complete tasks, solve some mysteries, and the like. "My students enjoy the books. While they are following Jack and Annie's adventures they are also getting a history and science lesson. The books are highly engaging and this is important when you're teaching someone how to read. You want them to enjoy themselves during the learning process, to have fun. These books definitely expand one's frame of reference." Additionally, Janet loves that there are a boy AND a girl protagonist. "I was reading/studying about sexism in children's literature and this book breaks away from that."


Some of Janet's favourite books are To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and books by Ernest J. Gaines.

Janet confesses that she is a frustrated writer but she has a few ideas on books she'd like to write. One of which is about being Creole in New Orleans. Janet is Creole herself and she would love to write a novel about the racial prejudice within the Creole community. The book would also be part historical fiction and part memoir. She would love for it to take place in the 18th Century and follow the generations growing up in the 20th Century.

What era have you read about that you'd like to visit?