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THE YEARBOOK by Carol Masciola

THE YEARBOOK

by Carol Masciola

Pub Date: Nov. 15th, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4405-8897-6
Publisher: Merit Press

A troubled girl in foster care believes she has finally found where she belongs when she travels in time back to 1923.

Lola’s mother has been mentally ill since Lola was a young child. She now lives in a group home in her small Midwestern town but acts out in rebellion. Assigned to clean out an old room in her school’s library, she finds a high school yearbook and becomes fascinated with it, suddenly finding herself back in the 1920s at a school dance. She meets Peter but inadvertently travels back to the present. She’s desperate to return to 1923, where she feels she belongs, and to Peter, who she believes is the boy for her. At last she manages to return and stay in the 1920s for several months, making friends, especially with the daring flapper Whoopsie. Her unfamiliarity with the history and science of the era leads to some stumbles, and she misses modern conveniences. Lola convinces Peter that she has traveled through time, and the two decide to eliminate the possibility that she might again return to the present, with results that add real suspense to the story. Masciola keeps pages turning by focusing on Lola’s emotional rebellion while providing entertaining details about life in 1923. The time travel feels arbitrary, but it works, and an ending twist neatly resolves the story.

An entertaining, undemanding time-travel romance.

(Science fiction. 12-18)