June 3, 2025 by Aladdin
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Ethan is a fourth grader who has the unusual experience of being visited, repeatedly, by his 39 year old self. Older Ethan knows that a substitute teacher named Ms. Evans will leave teaching because of a horrible experience at Ethan's school, and become an evil supervillain who will destroy life as we know it. Not only that, but one of Ethan's classmates, Serenity, will become her henchwoman. The class's behavior does drive the substitute nearly to tears, and while the other students are proud of this, Ethan goes out of his way to apologize and encourage the young woman to stick with the profession. Ethan is also instructed to encourage somewhat offbeat, kooky classmate Tamara to take an accelerated math class despite her learning challenges, since she is the one who invents time travel. Older Ethan is often vague on details, claiming he can't share too much, dresses in bizarre fashions, and tries to explain the science of time travel with words that nobody understands. Ethan is concerned that older Ethan is no longer friends with best friend Ben, and asks his supportive if offbeat parents about their own friendships at family dinners with siblings Greg and Talya. After an incident where a school lunch makes everyone except Ethan sick (thanks to a warning to not eat the ziti!), Ethan manages to convince Ms. Evans to apply to become the school librarian. This is enough to change the course of history when she late uses her evil tendencies in her job in charge of school curriculum.
Strengths: The best part of this was the description of the books that were being read in the 4th grade language arts classes. One was Joker, the description of which I need to go back and find, but which involved a dog dying and several other typically middle grade, award winning sad things, and the other was just entitled Tragic Death at Sea. Yep. So much of middle grade literature! The other thing I really enjoyed was Ethan's worry that he wouldn't be friends with Ben when they grow up. In reality, he'll be lucky to make it to 8th grade and still be friends, but when we are young, best friends are so central to our existence that I enjoyed seeing this realistic worry portrayed. Having alive, supportive parents and siblings who sometimes get in the way was also encouraging. This was goofy fun, and a light, fast paced read, and Ethan is an appropriately harried hero who is trying his best to help save the world even though he doesn't understand what is going on.
Weaknesses: There were some school procedures that didn't ring true; when there's no sub, the students are divided up and sent to other classes, which I have never seen happen. Also, unless Ms. Evans has her MLS and school library certification, she couldn't be a school librarian, at least here in Ohio. I know this is nitpicky, and maybe this happens in other places, but it bothered me. I also could have used a few more details about why older Ethan was visiting; this seemed almost like a second book in a series.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed the time travel in Wilson's Me vs. the Multiverse or Otheguy's Cousins in the Time of Magic, but want the same humorous vibe as Yee and Santat's The Misfits, with even more illustrations. (Which didn't appear in the E ARC.)
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