MMGM- Rewind

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Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

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Unleashing Readers

Graff, Lisa. Rewind
August 22, 2023 by Philomel Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

N.B. I LOVED this book. It had so many good details, and it made me cry. And look at that cover! However, I managed to delete the E ARC before I wrote the review, so I didn't have some crucial information, like the name of Meg's mom. My apologies for the fuzzy quality of my details. You need to read this book!

It's 2018 and the town of Gap Bend, Pennsylvania is getting ready for it's yearly Time Hop. This time, the town is focusing on 1993, and McKinley O'Dair is ready! With the help of her best friend, Meg, her grandmother, and her Aunt Connie, she has sewn a fanastic costume and is looking forward to being in the fashion competition. Meg is more interested in the trivia team that both girls are on, but McKinley is tired of that and wants the two to find another activity in which to be involved. When McKinley's overworked and somewhat hidebound father has to work on the day of the competition, he tells McKinley that she will have to miss it in order to make sure that her grandmother gets her medication. Her grandmother, who is only 65, had a stroke when her father was about McKinley's age, and while she does a great job compensating, still is in a wheelchair and faces a lot of health challenges. McKinley and Meg decide to go to the festival anyway, and manage to run afoul of Mr. Jones, a teacher who has been around forever. Meg's mom locks him in a closet, and the next thing McKinley knows, she is back in 1993. She meets an obnoxious boy, Billy, whom she is mortified to find out is her father, and his best friend, Ron, who is equally obnoxious and Meg's father! Meg's mother tells her parents that McKinley is an exchange student who will be staying with them, and since it's 1993, they don't ask a lot of questions. The time hop in 1993 was highlighting 1939. Meg's mom does some research and realizes that Mr. Jones time traveled from 1969 into the past, and a blurry picture of him appears in a news article from the time to which he traveled. The girls contact him, and he is most concerned about hiding McKinley away until she can return safely to her own time without changing anything in 1993. Me'g mom realizes that there are a number of teens who had time traveled (thank you, microfiche newspaper!), and they seem to be fine. McKinley decides that the reason she time traveled was to help her father. She is so happy to meet her grandmother when she is young and healthy, and the two work on costumes for the 1939 play together. McKinley tries to talk to her father and make him less of a jerk; jerky boys in 1993 are a whole different ballgame, and she tries to introduce some diversity and inclusion sensitivity to the era of parachute pants. Will she be able to accomplish something in 1993 in order to return to her own time? And will her life be any different?

Strengths: I adore time travel books, and this had some really great features. An entire town celebrating a year in the past? Multiple children time traveling and getting written up in the newspaper? Meeting one's family and friends thirty years in the past? Trying to change things? Yes, yes, yes! Definitely my favorite Graff novel, right ahead of her 2015 Lost in the Sun. The characters were particularly well developed and engaging; the father read like a 1990s television dad (think Beverly Hills 90210), there's a little friend drama with Meg and McKinley, the grandmother and her friend Connie are fantastic, and Meg's mom was perfect. She knew about the time travel in the present but never said anything, which is just mindblowing. I also enjoyed that there really wasn't a particularly strong motivator for the time travel, and there's not really much different with her father when McKinley returns; it's more that she gains a new understanding of herself and of her father. Throw in a lot of name dropping of popular candy, descriptions of fashion, and chapter headings that are a play list of popular songs (including Weird Al's Jurassic Park from Alapalooza!), and this is an absolute winner. Buy it for today's kids whose parents grew up in the 1990s, and attempt to keep it for 30 years for the next generation. Better yet, buy two-- one to circulate and one to keep for later!
Weaknesses: I'm not sure how it would fit into the story, but it would have been good to have some explanation as to why Billy and Ron were able to act in such horrendous ways. Having lived through the time, I know that this was behavior that occurred. Even if it wasn't really acceptable behavior, there were more people who acted like this and got away with it. Young readers could use some background, but since many of their parents would have been in middle school in 1993, perhaps this can start some family conversations. Also, while I had a friend who had a stroke at 40, I would have liked to see the grandmother, who is roughly my age, in better health! Of course, it was poignant when McKinley was able to see the more vibrant version of her grandmother, so I'll forgive it. (Maybe I'm just in awesome shape for my age?)
What I really think: Until I can successfully travel back to 1980 and convince my 15 year old self to major in the hard sciences or business management, I will continue to love middle grade time travel books. 

Have to pair this with Eulberg's The Best Worst Summer (set partly in 1989), and I'm sure that there will be a lot more 1990s nostalgia coming from these young whippersnapper authors!