The Retake

Calonita, Jen. The Retake 

December 1st 2020 by Delacorte Press

E ARC provided by Netgalley

Zoe is apprehensive about the first day of seventh grade; she and her absolutely best friend Laura have had to spend the summer apart for various reasons, and they haven't reconnected for some of their necessary rituals such as discussing their first day outfits. Because she's been following Laura's social media feed, she can tell that Laura has been hanging out with some new friends while Zoe was away, and her brief interactions with Laura confirm that some of her priorities have shifted. For instance, the two were very involved with Future Cities and hoped for spots on the volleyball team, but being in dramatic productions seems more important to Laura now. After a disastrous first day of school that involves a spot on her white jeans and her phone being taken away, Zoe misses volleyball tryouts to just go home. Her older sister, Taryn, gives her a hard time about it, and her mother insists that she needs to try other things. Since Zoe's mom and Laura's mom are best friends, the two families (minus Laura's father, since her parents have recently divorced) have dinner together, but conversation is strained. When Zoe finds an app that mysteriously appeared on her phone while it was being help in the office, she selects a picture of a sleepover three months ago and hits the "back" button. She is transported to the sleepover, and tries to change things with Laura, as well as Ava, Hyacinth, and other girls. Things don't go quite the way she hopes, and she tries going to another point in time. Every time she thinks she can makes things different, she just makes them worse. Through these travels, however, she learns that she does really like Future Cities, that Clare is a far better friend than Laura, and that even when you are best friends with someone for a long time, you can still grow apart. Will Zoe be able to find a version of her middle school life that works for her? 
Strengths: Issues with friends are such a large part of the middle school experience that they could be included in every single book in all genres and it wouldn't be too many tales of this. Zoe and Laura's relationship is absolutely typical, and it was fascinating to see how many ways things could go wrong. I especially liked the use of technology in the book; while this might date the book at some point, Instagram has been a big part of tween culture since at least 2012. Zoe knowing what Laura is up to when she is not with her is something that wouldn't have happened a few years ago, and is a big problem! Zoe's disocvery of herself and what she likes, as well as her appreciation of the better qualities of other classmates makes this very hopeful, and the fact that she realizes that she and Laura will remain friends on some level but are different enough that they won't be best friends is a great, mature example for tween readers to see. I love this author's Secrets of My Hollywood Life series. 
Weaknesses: This was more invested in the friend drama than the time travel capabilities, which makes it perfect for actual tween readers, but disappointed me as an adult reader just a tiny bit. This is mainly because I desperately want to go back to September of 1979 and change my entire life and is not a fault of Ms. Calonita's writing!
What I really think: Definitely purchasing. I'm not sure why there aren't more time-travel-via-cell-phone books; there's a little of that in Jay Asher's The Future of Us, and of course Sarah Mlynowski's Gimme a Call (2010. 2010?! Wow. Seems like a read this just yesterday!) tackles this idea brilliantly. 

Timeslip Tuesday-- The Obsidian Blade, The Master of Misrule

Hautman, Pete. The Obsidian Blade. (The Klaatu Diskos #1)
10 April 2012, Candlewick Press

Tucker's father is a minister in a small, midwestern town, his mother is the organist for the church, and Tucker just likes hanging out and getting into trouble with his friends. All of this changes after Tucker's father goes up on the roof (to repair damage done by Tucker catapulting a wooden gnome up there), disappears, and shows up later with a young, odd-looking girl named Lahlia and announces that he no longer believes in god. After this, his mother starts to see ghosts and act oddly. Doctors tell the family that the mother is autistic and displays all of the classic signs of the spectrum disorder. She gets worse and worse, until one day Tucker awakes to a note from his father saying that he is taking the mother for treatment. Tucker won't be able to come, but will stay with his uncle Curtis/Kosh, a loner who lives several hours away. Kosh and Tucker both have an odd experience with a shimmering disk of air similar to one that Tucker saw near his father before he disappeared-- they are transported to one of the Twin Towers right before it is hit by an airplane on September 11. Kosh lifts Tucker up to a disk so he goes back to the farm and survives, and Tucker in turn sends a ladder back so Kosh can get out of there. Neither understand what is going on, but Tucker has bigger problems when he is sucked into a disk the second time. The disks are an invention by the Klaatu, incorporeal beings, and are a way to travel to different points in place and time. Various peoples populate their otherworld, including Mendicants, who heal Tucker but keep him for years working in a factory to pay them back, and other strange creatures, including a giant maggot.
Strengths: Very nice cover, and the scenes set in the midwest are oddly compelling. I'll file this one under magical realism rather than time travel, and I think my hard core fantasy fans will enjoy the trilogy.
Weaknesses: Huh. This was one weird book. Charlotte does a much better job at telling the good and bad parts of this book in her review at Charlotte's Library.  I was put in mind of this author's Mr. Was (1996), which I also had a hard time understanding. 


Powell, Laura. The Master of Misrule.

12 June 2012, Random House Children's Books
Also reviewed at Young Adult Books Central.

In this sequel to The Game of Triumphs, we see again the four main characters. Blaine hopes that his prize in the game will help him find his violent step father and make him pay. Cat wants to find her parents' killer and bring him to justice. Flora wants to find her sister Grace and convince her to leave the game. Toby doesn't have anything to win-- he just likes wielding the power within the game. The only problem is that when these young people let the Fool rise to the position of the Master of Misrule, they unleashed the evil power of the game, and it's seeping from Arcanum into the real world. Scratch cards for the "Triumph Lottery" with either heads or tails are being found all over London, and those who reveal "Heads, you win" have good luck, while those who reveal the devil's tale have woe befall them. All four want to retrieve their prize from Arcanum, but when they go to Temple House, they find it trashed. They meet the High Priest, who tells them the current state of the game-- they have ruined it with their meddling, and the only way to save both worlds is for the four to take the place of the disabled kings and queens who are the game masters. Fighting both against the game, as well as to attain their original goals, the four struggle against all of the traps and deceits that Arcanum has to offer.
Strengths: This is a brilliant, evocative two book series, perfect for students who like role playing games, or any kind of game. There is a lush, Victorian air to much of the book, and the palpable struggle against evil has the personal aspect to it to make it almost painful. The inclusion of tarot elements makes this an innovative and original fantasy. Very nice.
Weaknesses: While I'm sure that students who read this will want to read it several times and memorize how the game is played, I found the plot and the game portions especially really confusing. My fantasy amnesia makes me think that I am probably missing half of the allusions. This is not the fault of the book so much as it is my fault, but bear this thought in mind if you try to hand it to someone who doesn't like high fantasy.

Time Slip Tuesday

Corriveau, Art. 13 Hangmen.

Tony's family is a bit confused, but very grateful, when Tony's great uncle Angelo leaves him his house in Boston, with the stipulation that the family live there until Tony is an adult, and Tony has the attic bedroom. This is great, because Tony's father is working on his PhD thesis on Paul Revere, so the family is strapped for money. There is some suspicious circumstances surrounding Angelo's death, and when a cranky neighbor, Mr. Hagemann, files charges against Tony's father, Tony wants to find out why the old man is so vengeful. This is made a little easier when Tony finds out that the baseball cap Zio Angelo gave him for his 13th birthday can conjure up Angelo as a 13 year old when set on a shelf that was made out of an ancient pawcorance. Not only does it conjure up Angelo (who met Ted Williams during a critical point in the baseball great's career), but a contemporary of Williams, an Irish boy who lived in the house, a freed slave boy... all as their 13 year old selves. It turns out that the Hagemann's have a very long vendetta against Tony's family, going all the way back to the time of Paul Revere. The Hagemanns want desperately to buy the house because of the rumors of treasure being there. The most recent Hagemann almost succeeds when Tony's house starts to fall to pieces and require more work than the family can afford. The only way they can stay is if Tony can consult the generations of 13 year old boys, figure out the secrets, and find the treasure.

Strengths: Very strong sense of place, and interesting bits of history. I had no idea that Ted Williams was of Mexican descent and was forbidden to discuss this fact! The time travel element is realistically done, and Tony is a great character. The subplot about him trying to lose weight was a really good one. I enjoyed this and can easily get baseball fans to read it.

Weaknesses: As in this author's first book for younger readers, How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a Dog), this was a bit long and convoluted for the target audience. There are a lot of details that bog down the narrative, like the information about Tony's dad. And really, I could buy the time travel, but I could NOT believe that Harvard offered his father a position.

Thake, Richard. Sir Seth Thistlethwaite Seeks the Truth of Betty the Yeti.

15 May 2012; Reviewed for Young Adults Books Central

Sir Seth and Sir Ollie are back for their third adventure. Finding themselves high in the wintery mountains trying to stop a plague of avalanches, the two meet the elf queen Elynor of Ah Ah Kaachu, who tells them that Betty the Yeti is causing them. When they hunt down Betty, she informs them that the fault lies really with the Hole Thing, a giant blue caterpillar, which is located even further up the mountain. Ollie needs to get to New Kaachu to warn people of the next avalanche, and the fastest way there is to go through the Mids, which is the Snow Fleas' secret tunnels, but also where the evil Ghu lives. Seth continues up the mountain with Elynor to fight the Hole Thing, which is blocking a tunnel and causing the avalanches, while Ollie fights the Ghu. Can the two accomplish their missions and save the twon of New Kaachu from being buried by another avalanche, and also clear Betty the Yeti's name?

Strengths: The prose in this is very lyrical and descriptive, and there is also a fair amount of action and adventure in struggling through their environments and fighting the monsters.

Weaknesses: This had a lot of goofy names and situations that make it slightly more suitable for younger middle grade readers.

Buzbee, Lewis. Bridge of Time.

Publication 22 May 2012

From the Publisher: "Best friends Lee Jones and Joan Lee have a lot more in common besides their names. On the eve of their class trip, they each learn their parents are getting divorced. Ugh. The class trip is a dud, so Lee and Joan steal away to talk. What follows is an afternoon nap in a lighthouse, walking up to find the Golden Gate Bridge gone - gone!- and meeting a young man named Sam Clemens, who is on the run from a mysterious stranger. Lee and Joan wonder: Where are they? What year is it? Why don't their cell phones work? How will they get back? Do they even want to? Will life everbe the same?"

Time travel is a hard, hard sell at my school. It's enormously helpful if the concept is combined with a topic that students like, such as baseball, or involves explosions. The beginning of this book was so languid, and the Lee Jones/Joan Lee relationship so manufactured that I stopped reading and looked up information about the author. Sure enough, Mr. Buzbee writes more adult fiction than middle grade, although his Steinbeck's Ghost was well liked by people in California. If time travel, or California history, are big circulators in your library, go for this one. It was very well written, just didn't grab me.

Oh, it was sad.

Today marks the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. There have been many books published on this events in preparation for this. Here are several of the many title I have come across. And if you are my age and went to summer camp stop singing "Oh, they built the ship Titanic" to yourself. You know you are!

Lorbiecki, Marybeth. Escaping Titanic.

This picture book version of the events centers around the real person Ruth Becker who was sailing with her mother and two younger siblings. Ruth's mother is frightened the whole time they are on the boat, but when a porter knocks on their door in the middle of the night with the news that something is wrong but will be fixed, she doesn't immediately dress the children and get them on deck. They do go eventually, and all of them narrowly get on life boats. They are separated, but everyone survives and they are reunited in the end. This would be a good read aloud to younger students who have heard of the event but don't need to know all of the gruesome details.

Brezenoff, Steve. Return to Titanic.

Published by Stone Arch Books, E ARC from Netgalley.com

Tucker and Maya have to spend a boring day in his mother's museum helping to set up a Titanic exhibit. Neither of them are all that interested even though an ancestor of Tucker's was on the ship. When the two are looking at artifacts, they both pick up a ticket... and are sent back in time to the Titanic! They try to stop Tucker's ancestor from getting on but are unsuccessful, so board themselves. Will they be able to make any changes in the outcome of this epic disaster? Book one of a series.

Weaknesses: I can't sell time travel at all in my library, and since these books for younger readers tend to be pricey, I won't be buying them.Strengths: Great, easy to read story for stronger readers than Magic Tree House fans. I liked the time travel technique and the graphic set up of the book.

Lawson, Julie. Ghosts of the Titanic.

When Kevin finds out that he has to travel to Halifax from British Columbia because his father has inherited a house from Angus Seaton, he is not happy and starts to act up in school. When his class is preparing to visit a Titanic exhibition, he gets in trouble for singing... the Titanic song! Seaton turns out to be a crewman on the Mackay-Bennet and helped retrieve bodies after the ship went down, helping to identify the bodies before giving them a burial at sea. Chapters then alternate between Seaton and Kevin-- Seaton went slightly mad, and Kevin is also haunted by the ghost of Annie, who claims that something was stolen from her young son, Michael. Kevin travels back in time and tries to save Annie, but is only successful in saving Michael. What is the family connection, and why did Annie haunt both Kevin and Angus?
Strengths: The information about the retrieval of the bodies is something that I have not read, and credit has to be given to Lawson for acknowledging that awful song!

Weaknesses: Kevin is not a likeable character, and the haunting is slightly far-fetched.

Quest for the Secret Keeper

Time Slip Tuesday is a recurring feature at Charlotte's Library.

This book was received from Young Adults Books Central and reviewed there. If there is a school or public library who could use this new hardcover book in their collection, please e mail me a short message about why you would like it, and I'll send it to one lucky respondent. If I am ever allowed out of the house to go to the post office! Goodness knows I have enough mailing envelopes now!

Laurie, Victoria. Quest for the Secret Keeper. (Oracles of Delphi Keep #3)

In 1232 BC, Laodamia of Phoenicia, the Oracle of Delphi, is dying in Morocco. She gives her bronze cuffs to the Carthaginian General Adrastus because they activate the portal for the United. Laodamia is about to die, so makes the general her Secret Keeper and swears him to delivering boxes of secrets and marrying Adria. Fast forward to 1940, where the orphan Ian is mourning the death of the man with whom his mother left him before he ended up in the Delphi Keep orphanage. Ian has other worries-- England has entered the war against Germany and English children are being evacuated into the countryside. Ian gets involved in a scuffle with a German officer and a mistress at the school is injured, so he tries to get Eva, another orphan who travels through the portal and who has healing powers, to come help. He meets Argos, an ancient Phoenician solider who is sent with the oracles prophecy. Ian and his friends must work to solve this, but if the United leave Delphi Keep, they won't be protected, and only they can solve the riddle of the propehct, find and save the secret keeper, and help the English against the Germans. The prophecy

indicates that seven children will come together, and this book ends with only five having been found, so there is probably another book on the way.

Strengths: Since this involves some mythology (as well as some French witches), fans of Rick Riordan might be interested. There is also a lot of World War II information; it reminds me a little of Ted Bell's The Nick of Time with it's journeying between two historical periods.

Weaknesses: This is the third book in the series, and does not stand alone well. I was very confused by many of the subplots, but don't think that I will backtrack and read The Oracle of Delphi Keep (2009) or The Curse of Deadman's Forest (2010).

The Last Musketeer-- Time Slip Tuesday

Gibbs, Stuart. The Last Musketeer.

Greg and his parents are traveling to Paris, but it isn't really a vacation. In order to survive financially, they are selling many family heirlooms to the Louvre, even though Greg's grandfather told them not to. The museum director is particularly keen to get Greg's mother's crystal necklace, even ripping it off her neck when she decides to keep it. The reason? He has the other half, and when the parts are reunited, all four are sent back in time to Paris in 1615. There, the director accuses the family of attempting to assassinate the king, and they are sent to jail. Greg manages to escape and gain sanctuary in a church, and is later befriended by Aramis, Porthos and Athos! Greg has his great-great grandfather's diary with him, and hopes that it will uncover the mystery, especially when he begins to think that the museum director and Richlieu are connected. Can he uncover the code in the diary, understand his family's background, and save his parents?

Strengths: Good historical information about the living conditions during this time period, and a fair amount of action and adventure. I've often said that The Three Musketeers is a good story that needs to be retold for modern tastes.

Weaknesses: This will be a hard sell, especially since it is very clearly the first book in a series. As much as I love time travel, students wrinkle their nose at it. I preferred this author's Belly Up, for the mystery and the unique and interesting setting.

Time Slip Tuesday-- Beswitched

Time Slip Tuesday is a recurring feature over at Charlotte's Library. Charlotte also posts a weekly round up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy book reviews as well as a monthly list of new releases. Definitely check out her blog if you haven't already.

Saunders, Kate. Beswitched.
Flora is not happy that her parents are sending her off to the posh Penrice academy so that they can go to Italy, collect her ailing grandmother, and install her in their home in Wimbledon, especially since her grandmother has always lead a profligate life and not really cared about Flora. On the train to the school, Flora hears strange voices while she is sleeping... and wakes up in 1935. Several roommates have found an old book of spells and summoned her. Flora is even more unhappy about this turn of events, especially since she has never studied Latin and has to wear horrible clothes and use soap to wash her hair. Her roommates help her navigate the strange and sometimes trying oddities of school life at this time, and she starts to think that 1935 is not so bad. She knows that she has to get home, though, and once she does, she learns some interesting things about her family and her grandmother that would not have been clear to her without her adventure.
Strengths: *Sigh* I loved everything about this. Time travel, British boarding school, reconnecting with grandparents-- all there. The mode of time travel made sense, and why shouldn't Flora have come into that time in period dress? She was really switching places with another girl. Reminded me very strongly of Charlotte Sometimes.
Weaknesses: I'm still getting nose wrinkles from my students when I suggest time travel books.

Dystopias-- Real and Fictional

Lake, Nick. In Darkness.
From the Publisher: "In the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, Shorty, a poor, fifteen-year-old gang member from the slums of Site Soleil, is trapped in the rubble of a hospital and as he grows weaker, he has visions and memories of his life of violence, his lost twin sister, and of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who liberated Haiti from French rule in 1804."

While this is certainly good coverage of how horrendous the results of this natural disaster were, and the extra historical perspective was interesting, this was not abook for the middle grades. The language is "gritty", and the narrative a bit confusing. A glossary of unfamiliar words would have helped.

Read a more complete review of this title at YA Books Central , The Happy Nappy Bookseller, The Fourth Musketeer, or Totally Bookalicious.


Walker, Brian F. Black Boy, White School.
From the Publisher: " When 14-year-old Anthony "Ant" Jones from the ghetto of East Cleveland, Ohio, gets a scholarship to a prep school in Maine, he finds that he must change his image and adapt to a world that never fully accepts him. But when he goes home he discovers that he no longer truly belongs there either. "

I had high hopes for this book, but the language and drug use make it one that I am not comfortable handing to students. I saw that one of my students was reading Ellen Hopkins' Crank, and when I asked her about it, she said that she really liked it, but SHE didn't think it was appropriate for a middle school library. She also admitted it would have been weird if I had handed it to her. More in-depth reviews at Bloggin' 'Bout Books, Good Books and Good Wine, Whatchamacallit Reviews, and A Book and a Hug.

Simmons, Kristen. Article 5.
Ember and her mother are just trying to survive in a futuristic society where the Bill of Rights is no longer and the law of the land is the Moral Statues. A terrible war has destroyed most of the major cities, and people are cramped together in the surviving areas, so to cut down on the fighting and lawlessness, the Federal Bureau of Reformation (known as the Moral Militia) has taken over, randomly arresting people, who never come back. When the Moral Militia shows up at Ember’s house, they haul her mother off because she had Ember without being married, and Ember is sent to a reform school as well. To make matters worse, one of the arresting officers is Chase, a former neighbor with a difficult past. Ember loved him. He eventually helps her break out of the school, after she is nearly killed for exposing guards’ misbehavior, and the two take off on an erratic cross country quest to find her mother. They hope that they can find someone to transport Ember to a safe house in an abandoned part of the country so that Chase can get back to his position before being considered AWOL, but they run into all sorts of problems. Chase has promised Ember’s mother that he will take care of her and get her to safety, so even when she runs from him, he finds her and helps her. Post apocalyptic problems constantly arise-- can the two get along well enough to save themselves? I feel a second book in the offing.
Strengths: For futuristic dystopia, this is very strong, plus has a touch of romance. Plausible reason for the change in government, reasonable portrayal of the groups and individuals Ember is fighting, enough bad things happening to people that students will be intrigued.
Weaknesses: All I could think was “Man, I’m too tired to live in a dystopia. Let me be killed in the first strike, because otherwise I’d just be hiding in my house/hovel/cardboard box.” All of the running just made me tired! Students will not have this problem.

(Time Slip???) Tuesday (well, at least it IS Tuesday!)

Hartley, A.J. Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact.

Darwen has moved from Manchester, UK to Atlanta, Georgia to live with his aunt who is very business oriented and not used to having a child around. After a strange encounter with Mr. Peregrine at an odd dusty shop in the local mall during which Mr. Peregrine gives Darwen a mirror, Darwen finds that he is able to travel into Silbilica, another world were there are fairies by also a powerful evil arising. Powerful evil might also be used to describe his new private school-- while he does find a few friends, he also runs afoul of some of the school bullies. The archaeology club interests him, and he feels that he can tell the friends he makes there about Sibilica. He and Alexandra go to the world together and have to face the scrobblers, who are managing to come into Atlanta more and more. Who is helping them to do this? Can Sibilicabe saved? While some of these questions are answered, there is room for a sequel.
Strengths: Magical realism and a strong school story ala Harry Potter will make this one appealing to my hard core fantasy fans. 
Weaknesses: This has been sitting next to my chair since an early November book look. Just couldn't pick it up. Cover art seemed especially blah to me, and nothing about the story sucked me in. I'll put it in the library collection, since I have a copy.

Time Slip Tuesday

Time Slip Tuesday is a recurring feature at Charlotte's Library. This is also a good day to announce that my students and I have managed to figure out HOW to time travel. It involves an old date due stamp, but we have yet to find the right stamp pad to activate it, so we haven't managed to travel anywhere yet. And we can only travel between 1992 and 1997. Oh, well. Perhaps I should ask Verizon about the unlimited Time Travel Plan for my phone!

Bedard, Michael. The Green Man
ARC from Netgalley.com
Ophelia, who prefers to be called “O”, is sent to live with her ailing aunt Emily for the summer while her father is in Italy. In a small English town, Emily runs a dusty old bookshop that is in as bad a condition as she is. The books are dusty and outdated, the shop in disrepair, and the business not bringing in enough money. O tries to get her aunt to eat more healthy food, stop smoking, and make small changes to the bookstore. During this all, she is plagued by horrible dreams of a demonic magic show, and eventually finds out that it is an event from Emily’s memory, and Emily is afraid that something bad will occur on August 8, the anniversary of this event. When a descendant of a local artist offers to sell a rare collection of books about magic to Emily, the two hope that this will be the salvation of the book shop, but it might also be their undoing!
Strengths: Much like the book Flightsend, I enjoyed the English setting of this one. A bookshop! Poets! That part was fabulous. I enjoyed the book very much.
Weaknesses: The demonic magic show was a bit odd. Certainly, it gives more meat to the plot, but it also makes it hard to find an audience for the book. It’s not exactly scary, but readers who want a story about running a bookshop in England might not want the scary parts. It’s rather Gothic, and there’s not as much call for that.


Hood, Ann. Little Lion (The Treasure Chest #2)
Having traveled back and visited Clara Barton in the first book, Felix and Maisie find themselves living with their mother, who is divorcing their father. All the two want to do is go home, and they figure that if they can somehow go back in time again, maybe they can keep their family together. With the help of their great aunt Maisie, they locate a family artifact that helps them go back... to Saint Croix in 1772. There they meet a young Alexander Hamilton and determine that he is the one to whom they should give a silver coin dated 1794, but they need to pick their time wisely in order to be believed. This involves traveling on a ship back to New York. Only when they come to terms with what is going on in the present day are they able to return.
Strengths: This would be a nice introduction to time travel for younger readers. I missed a little by not reading the one about Clara Barton, and I may have to pick that one up, since I researched her in the 4th grade for a Wax Museum!
Weaknesses: A little young for middle school, and fundamentally at odds with my philosophy of time travel. I know, I know-- it doesn't really exist, but if it did, it would be caused by something as simple as a stamp pad! This book takes 47 pages for them to figure out how to go back again. And then they didn't have proper time traveling outfits! If it took that long, they could have cobbled something together.

Apparently, I am reading WAY too many time travel books! Still need to find a shawl for my outfit and post a picture of me ready to hurtle into the past. Or the future! (I can only go as far as 2015 with my current date due stamper!

Timeslip Tuesday

Timeslip Tuesday is a recurring feature at Charlotte's Library. Charlotte also does a fabulous round up of middle grade and YA fantasy fiction on Sundays.

Malone, Malorie. Stealing Magic: A Sixty Eight Rooms Adventure
ARC from Netgalley.com, Random House 2012
Ruthie and Jack are still basking in the glow of having discovered an album of lost photographs from a famous artist, an album which turned up in the Thorne Rooms when they used a magic key to shrink down and get into them. When they meet Dora Pomeroy, a decorator who is studying the rooms, they realize that articles are missing, just as art is being stolen from famous collections around Chicago. While investigating, the two travel back to 1937 Paris and meet a Jewish girl. When they realize that her family will be in danger from the Nazis, they try to get back and warn her, only to find that their key has been stolen! They find another way in, and start to realize that the thief is someone they know-- and they may have helped the stealing begin! The two work to put things in the Thorne Rooms to rights, and once again emerge victorious.
Strengths: Love the inclusion of real miniature rooms, time travel, and a good mystery.
Weaknesses: Figured out too early who the thief was! The first book has been a steady but somewhat slow circulator.

Williams, Avery. The Alchemy of Forever.
January 3rd 2012 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Sera has spent 600 years with Cyrus, and she's fed up. At first, she was glad that he saved her from death with his potion that allowed her to transplant her spirit into another body. She's gotten tired of killing (each new body only lasts about ten years), the Coven of Incarnates, and most of all, Cyrus. When she is due to get a new body, he throws an elaborate party, but she drugs him, runs away, and vows to finally die. However, she comes across a car accident and while trying to save Kailey (who is gravely injured), accidentally takes over her body. Adjusting to Kailey's life is difficult, but "Kailey" is able to say that the accident caused her some memory impairment. Sera is enjoying her new life and thinking that being away from Cyrus and the Coven makes life worth living... and then Cyrus shows up at her school as a substitute teacher! Sera/Kailey tries to elude detection, but then circumstances change... or do they. Another book is surely in the works!
Strengths: LOVED the idea that yes, after 600 years, Sera is sick of Cyrus! This was vastly amusing, drew me into the book, and when Sera took over Kailey's body, this reminded me a lot of Martyn Bedford's Flip. Very well done.
Weaknesses: The ending was very abrupt, but once I realized that there would be another book, that was okay.

Time Slip Tuesday--Day of the Predator

Scarrow, Alex. Day of the Predator.
Sequel to Time Riders.
Liam and Maddy, Time Riders stationed on September 10 and 11, 2001, are joined by Sal and and a new version of their support unit, Bob, now a woman named Becks. Liam and Becks are sent to stop the assassination of Edward Chan, the father of time travel, but when they are at that period in time, an explosion sends them back to the Cretaceous period... with Chan and several of the students and teachers! The group tries to survive and battles wily dinosaurs while trying to get a message through to 2001 about their coordinates. Meanwhile, in 2001, Maddy is trying to find the group as well as trying to get through to Foster, her mentor, on September 12. The message does get through, but brings with it new risks of time contamination, and the Time Riders have a lot of clean up work to do before they can go back to just monitoring.
Strengths: Dinosaurs bring lots of action to any story, so that was fun. I also liked the secret service agents, even if they were the bad guys.
Weaknesses: Still not entirely sold on the method of time travel presented in this series, but it does address the whole issue of time travel changing the world.


Make sure you check out Charlotte's Library for more books on time travel on many Tuesdays, as well as a fabulous round up on middle grade and young adult science fiction and fantasy reviews.