Quantum mechanics, psychic powers and alchemy blend with adventure in an appealing read for fantasy and science- fiction fans alike. Silver Rivers is seven years old when her parents and younger sister disappear. Four years later, time becomes unstable and a school bus filled with children disappears into a time tornado while a wooly mammoth is spotted on the banks of the Thames. Silver has the central role in finding a mystical relic, the Timekeeper, which will resolve all the problems with time. The complex plot has many subordinate threads and plays itself out in two universes, rural England and above- and below-ground London. Well-developed main characters add liveliness and suspense to the story, while secondary characters (a pair of inept thugs, the original Schrödinger’s cat) add touches of humor to a basically sober story. The climax is chaotic and exciting; the resolution is realistic, bittersweet and a little too quickly achieved. Give this book to readers of William Sleator’s Marco’s Millions (2001) and Last Universe (2005), and Suzanne Collins’s Underland Chronicles. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2006
ISBN: 1-58234-919-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Amanda K. Woods, 12, is a girl to like’she just doesn’t know it yet. She’s quirky, serious, impulsive, imaginative, perceptive, smart, and now, sharp, thanks to the addition of the K that stands like a sword flashing confidently in the middle of her name. In an opening scene, Amanda says good-bye to Lyle Leveridge, former neighbor and friend who leaves behind, at her suggestion, the legacy of his right hand, which she “exchanges” with her own in a tingling, did-it-really-happen episode. That hand seems to give her special powers when it comes to baking muffins to her mother’s specifications, writing letters to a French pen pal, seeking the advice of a yogi, and more, in Rome, Wisconsin, circa 1950. Casting aside her mother’s meticulous criterion, older sister Margaret’s Dale Carnegie—inspired thoughts, and the dubious punditry of women’s magazines, Amanda learns to see through her own eyes, speak “her own real thoughts.” Cameron (More Stories Huey Tells, 1997, etc.) avoids grand revelations in favor of singular insights that affirm girlhood without self-consciousness. As Amanda moves from alone to alive, she becomes strong, but not impossibly so, realizing that her special powers are those inside her, not borrowed from the Lone Ranger or a boy’s hand. Amanda is the story, and she’s as funny as she is wise. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: April 21, 1998
ISBN: 0-374-36702-7
Page Count: 201
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1998
When Miranda, 13, and her parents come to live in Massachusetts, Miranda finds an old dollhouse, a replica of their new home, in the attic. A more unsettling discovery: by peering through the dollhouse windows, she can observe the past, especially (according to a kitchen calendar) in 1904. Piecing together nonsequential scenes, she learns of an angry mother who's frustrated in her desire to work outside the home and whose abuse of her daughter Dorothy includes locking her in the attic. Another family, during WW II, repeats the pattern of a mother whose anger is linked to wanting a job; this woman attributes her behavior to the house itself, and the family moves. Then Miranda's mother too becomes irrationally abusive and laments her thwarted career—bizarre, since she's a successful M.D. Miranda eventually unravels a mystery that readers will have solved already: Dorothy didn't die in a train wreck but was trapped in the attic. More ingeniously, Miranda finds a way to change history: finding the attic key, she gives it to Dorothy through the dollhouse, with the result that several things change in the present—e.g., Dorothy is still alive. With numerous deftly sketched characters, including a sympathetic boy next door, an intriguing plot, and such dividends as a secret room used to hide escaping slaves, this should keep readers interested. Well wrought and entertaining. (Fiction. 10- 14)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-15-288205-7
Page Count: 260
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1991
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