Once Was a TimeBy Leila SalesSan Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2016.Grade 4 and Up 322 PagesThis is a great story of friendship, loyalty, and time travel. Lottie and Kitty are best friends during a tumultuous time in history; World War II. The German Nazi’s were desperate to win the war at all cost and they were looking for a secret weapon—they thought it was Lottie’s father. Bromley was a British scientist studying time travel and a great storyteller.
The title of the novel When Friendship Followed Me Home suggests that meeting new friends is something that happens by chance. Explore the connection between chance and friendship in the novel. (ACELT1635) R W LT 4. Imagine you are one of Ben’s reading students in the library. Retell the first visit to the library from their point of view. In the book When Friendship Followed Me Home, what happened to make Kayla, the 5 year old at the group home, have to go to the hospital? The red smoke from the magic box caused her to have an asthma attack (pg 81-82).
He would keep Lottie and Kitty on their edge of their seats and filled their dreams with traveling back in time, always together, to make the world a place with no war. The Nazi’s kidnapped Bromley, Lottie and Kitty. They thre atened to harm the girls in order to get him to spill the secret of finding a time travel portal.
The men are ready to harm the girls when Lottie notices a portal and jumps in. Finding herself in the grass not in 1940 but 2013 and Kitty is nowhere to be found. A British girl, now in the United States, seventy-three years into the future and alone. Join Lottie and those along the way who helped her grow and understand that friendship is timeless. When Friendship Followed Me HomeBy Paul GriffinNew York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2016.248 pages Grade 5 and UpI always panic when I see a book cover with a dog on it –I hate sad dog books—they make me cry a lot!This is a beautiful story that made me laugh, cry, filled me with empathy and hope. Ben Coffin is a bit of a loner, which is okay by him as he would rather be deep in a sci-fi novel than have to face his classmates. Being a foster kid has it challenges and being the target of a bully makes life almost impossible.
He keeps his head down and escapes to the library at every chance he gets. There he runs into the most unlikely friends you would ever meet! Paul Griffin, the author, does a fabulous job of introducing you to Halley, known as Rainbow Girl and a scruffy dog; that walks into Ben’s life when life is crumbling around him. Lucky for Ben his foster mom was very wise and her words of wisdom would be the foundation of all that is good in Ben’s life. One line that sums up this book to me is, “It is better to have loved and lost then never to have never loved at all.”.
I moved around the whole store a lot throughout the day, shelving different sections and filling in at cash. No sight of Travis over the rest of my eight-hour shift. I assumed he’d left not long after he picked out his books.At 5:30pm, I clocked out and left the store through the front door.
The second I went out the door, I felt someone fall into step with me. “Hi SleepyBee! It’s Travis, remember me?”Chilled blood. “I didn’t want to bother you while you were working, SleepyBee, so I waited until you finished your shift! Are you going home? I can walk you.” He’d researched many kidnappings and serial killers while he waited for me, he said.
Heart hammered. Oh, I said, I have to go to the bank. Stop saying my name, I thought.The bank was next door to the bookstore. I hoped that there were other people inside, that he might leave if others were around.
But no: he followed me inside. The bank had closed so no one was there. “You could use the ATM,” Travis suggested helpfully. Uh, I said, right. He waited for me while I withdrew ten dollars. He held the door open for me as we left the bank.
It was already dark outside.“Do you know who my favourite serial killer is?”Oh, oh, I said, I forgot something at work, I have to go back right away. I took off, leaving him on the sidewalk and ran inside the store. Found the store manager and the regional manager in the office, gasped out that someone obsessed with famous kidnappings stalked me over my whole shift and tried to follow me home. They asked me call my boyfriend to pick me up, and to go by the register while they sent the plainclothes security guard over to wait with me.
Act like the security guard is your friend, they said, so if Travis comes back, he won’t know you said anything and we can grab him; we’ll notify the staff to keep an eye out.The security guard was bristling for action and trying to play it cool. My boyfriend came and we went home. Travis never returned.So I’m a petite, college-aged girl working my way through school in retail as a cashier. On Friday night I was on the front register of our small store. The place was pretty dead since it was foggy, dark and freezing outside. This guy came in and bought a phone case that came in one of those hard to open plastic packages (you knowthe kind that you can only get open with scissors or a knife or something).
He didn’t talk much during the transactionjust grunted when I said hello, and nodded when I asked if he had found everything alright. After he had paid for it, he was fumbling to open the package for a few minutes. He then came over to me and asked if he could borrow our scissors to cut the package open.I said “Sure, no problem”, and as I handed him the scissors, he leaned close to me, his hand sliding over mine as he took them.
He looked me dead in the eye and said in a quiet, steady voice “All the better to stab you with” before smoothly walking out and stealing my fucking scissors.I made sure to double-check the back seat of my car when I got off work that night.