The Christmas Time Travelers 2

In this charming children's tale, The Christmas Time Travelers II: The Professor's Journey, fourdogs, a time machine and a curious and well-meaning professor will visit ancient Bethlehemon a very special night.Professor Malcolm McDougal lives in the pleasant, almost old-fashioned town of Coventry,in New England. Two years ago on Christmas Eve, his three furry canines - Lily, Benji andKarat - were transported by his special invention - a time machine - and took a remarkabletrip to Bethlehem. Lily returned with a small scrap of the blue blanket wrapped around thebaby Jesus accidentally caught on her collar. Now Christmas is coming around, and a fourthpet has joined the group - Jem, a sweet but very restless puppy. The Professor begins toimagine that he could also make that journey, to see with his own eyes what his pets sawtwo years before. He rushes to the costume shop just in time to grab himself in authenticlooking shepherd's robe, belt and head covering.After he activates his invention and disappears to the past, the dogs, curious, hop into themachine. Jem's excitement causes a paw to hit the start button. Thus they will all wind upin Bethlehem, very identi able because of the bright star shining overhead, and all willwitness the holy child and his mother being visited and adored by a group of reverentialshepherds. The wise Professor will take two signi cant actions before returning to thepresent, demonstrating valuable lessons about the best way to remember his life-changingexperience.L. M. Haynes is both the author and illustrator of this engaging tale, a successor to his rston this theme, The Christmas Time Travelers. He has created soft, colorful drawings whichbring the dogs very much to life, from their bouncy moves to their sweet, deep dark eyes.The pictures also serve to convey the mystique of that long-ago manger scene.His book would make a zestful read-to, neatly written in simple language that has the powerto keep the attention of younger children. At the same time, it can be read by older ones,posing some questions for lively discussion in family or classroom, about such issues astime travel, Biblical events, and the best use of our modern, ubiquitous cell phones.