Briton leaves Iraq after antiquities conviction quashed

I Built a Rocket Ship (Kids Can Press, 32 pages, hardcover, $22) by Winnipegger Anna Lazowski is a tender story for children ages 4-8 about a little girl trying to make sense of her mother’s death. The child engages in conversation with her late mom, agreeing and disagreeing about things said as she carries objects (and of course, the cat) to the backyard. There, she is building a rocket ship she will pilot into the skies to find her mom again.

Jennica Lounsbury’s varied perspectives show the range of emotions the little girl experiences.

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Northwoods Lullaby by Mary Casanova (University of Minnesota Press, 32 pages, hardover, $25) is a bedtime book for readers up to age eight, perfect to bring a busy, happy day to a close. Just like children who are listening to adults reading the book, all the animal babies are being tucked into their nests and burrows by loving parents: “Thump and scamper,/nimble clover./ Soon it’s time to rest. Baby loon/ nestles in/as Papa floats along.”

I demand restitution. Where’s my hour?

In the traditional fall-back, spring-forward time change set up — you know, ol’ trusty that’s been effect for lo these 63 years — we lost an hour in the spring that we got back in the fall.

That was the social contract: you commit to feeling like you’re on cold medication for a week in March because you know a glorious extra hour of sleep will be returned to you in November. (Unless, of course, you have little kids, but look: we all make our choices.)

Well, that transaction, flawed as it was, isn’t happening this year. That hour you sacrificed to the sun gods in the spring? Gone. Not coming back. We’ve sprung forward and we shan’t be falling back — not in November, and (possibly) not ever. The scale shall remain unbalanced and the loop shall remain unclosed as Manitoba has adopted permanent daylight time.

LONDON (AP) — A retired British geologist jailed in Iraq for antiquities smuggling has been freed and has left the country, his family said Sunday.

Jim Fitton, 66, was sentenced in June to 15 years in an Iraqi prison. A Baghdad appeals court overturned the conviction and last week ordered his release.

Fitton has now been reunited with family in Malaysia, where he lives. Son-in-law Sam Tasker said Fitton arrived at Kuala Lumpur airport on Friday, and the family was “absolutely over the moon.” Fitton missed wedding for his daughter Leila and Tasker in May while he was imprisoned.

Fitton was arrested in March at Baghdad Airport and charged under antiquities laws that carried the possibility of a death sentence.