"It is a dark winter's evening. Lessons finished long ago. And something odd is going on in the playground ..."
The air is full of clocks, or is it? No these are not floating clocks they are clock-shaped lanterns and every child in the class has made a different one. Some are simple. Some are fancy. One is an alarm clock and one has a digital display. Every clock shows a different time, but this is not about the time it is about the date. The 21st December is the shortest day of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere).
"Every year, to celebrate this special day, the children of the town make clock lanterns. ... And when darkness falls on the shortest day, the children parade through the town with their clock lanterns."
But where are the children going as they parade through the town? And what will happen to all of those lanterns?
Take a look at Nick Sharratt's web page - he is such a vibrant and UK prolific illustrator. I love this series for very young children:
Carnival of the Clocks is from the Little Gems series - please consider adding these to your school library. These gems are just perfect for newly independent readers. The colour illustrations are so appealing, there is only a small amount of text on each page and each of these books contain a very satisfying story.
There really is an event like this created by a charity and held in Brighton, UK. It is called The Burning of the Clocks. See lots of photos here.
Of course, 21st December is not the shortest day of the year here in Australia which happens in June but that is not a reason to dismiss this terrific little book. After all we don't have snow at Christmas and Easter is not the beginning of Spring.
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