The Child and the Deep Blue Sea

     I just devoured a delicious little book titled Around the World in 100 Years, by Jean Fritz.  It is written for students of middle school in a language given the realistic patina of a youthful eye, unlike the more hallowed and glamorized version that we where tutored with in my youth.  In Ms. Fritz's version, with beguiling, and slyly humorous, illustrations by Anthony Bacon Venti, we see the explorers as human beings, exceptional ones, yes, in context with their unveiling of the new world(s), but not glorified so that their arrogance is disguised as virtue, for the sake of religion or other idealism.  The little book, quickly read, refreshed the sense of wonder and adventure that is so alluring . . . casting off to sea into the unknown.
  It brought back the feeling that I was trying to capture when I did "The World When I Was 5", which was gifted to Union-Sanborn Elementary School, Northfield, NH, for the 50th Birthday of Suzan Gannett, Principal in honor of all the children who "set sail" towards a life of adventure from our beloved school.  It is approximately 16" Circular, with glass attachments.