A breezy, straightforward approach to time travel featuring unforgettable characters.
In Yanni’s debut YA adventure, four siblings discover a way to travel through time, giving them the opportunity to possibly prevent their parents’ deaths.
After the Fitzgerald children lose their mother and father in a plane crash in 1974, their Aunt Alicia becomes their new guardian. She ships them off to Choate Rosemary Hall, a boarding school in Connecticut. Teenagers Ken, Deb, and Joe and 10-year-old Kim slowly adjust to their new lives; they make friends, and the teens start dating classmates. Joe, however, has a tougher time dealing with his grief, and he focuses his energy on some files that he found in an abandoned campus building. They detail a machine prototype and a “theoretical calculation” for making time bend—which could make time travel possible. Joe, who excels in math and science, manages to develop the machine with help from campus caretaker Mr. Brewster and his own siblings (Ken is studying mechanical engineering). Joe suggests that they go back in time to save their parents, so Deb comes up with a strategy: She believes that stopping the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 will spark a series of events that will keep their parents away from their fatal plane trip. Yanni establishes strong foundations for all the young characters before the time-hopping takes center stage; for example, Deb writes letters to Denise, her best friend whom she misses, and Ken ditches his plan to join the Marines so that he can look after his siblings. Throughout, the author clearly shows how the Fitzgeralds care for one another. He also simplifies the sci-fi concept by offering few particulars on how time travel or the machine actually work, but there are intriguing discussions between the siblings and their friends regarding the changes that time bending could generate—including the Fitzgeralds never attending Choate. The story’s historical references are mostly solid, although there are noticeable anachronisms, including mentions of Star Wars and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day federal holiday prior to their existences.
A breezy, straightforward approach to time travel featuring unforgettable characters.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5462-6847-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A well-loved author brings together, on a Maine vacation, characters from two of her books. Peter's parents have assured him that though Sheila ("The Great") Tubman and her family will be nearby, they'll have their own house; but instead, they find a shared arrangement in which the two families become thoroughly intertwined—which suits everyone but the curmudgeonly Peter. Irrepressible little brother Fudge, now five, is planning to marry Sheila, who agrees to babysit with Peter's toddler sister; there's a romance between the grandparents in the two families; and the wholesome good fun, including a neighborhood baseball game featuring an aging celebrity player, seems more important than Sheila and Peter's halfhearted vendetta. The story's a bit tame (no controversies here), but often amusingly true to life and with enough comic episodes to satisfy fans.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-525-44672-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There is something profoundly elemental going on in Smalls’s book: the capturing of a moment of unmediated joy. It’s not melodramatic, but just a Saturday in which an African-American father and son immerse themselves in each other’s company when the woman of the house is away. Putting first things first, they tidy up the house, with an unheralded sense of purpose motivating their actions: “Then we clean, clean, clean the windows,/wipe, wipe, wash them right./My dad shines in the windows’ light.” When their work is done, they head for the park for some batting practice, then to the movies where the boy gets to choose between films. After a snack, they work their way homeward, racing each other, doing a dance step or two, then “Dad takes my hand and slows down./I understand, and we slow down./It’s a long, long walk./We have a quiet talk and smile.” Smalls treats the material without pretense, leaving it guileless and thus accessible to readers. Hays’s artwork is wistful and idyllic, just as this day is for one small boy. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-316-79899-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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