2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific Book!, December 11, 2007
This brought back my son's love of reading again. We found it under 'Historical Fiction' which is a bit of a stretch. They do talk about history, but not as much as their adventure. I would like to see more history in subsequent novels. My son loved the characters, especially Alex!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Time-Travel to the Blitz, August 19, 2007
This is a real original. The three main characters are American high school kids - two from California, one a native of Snipesville, Georgia, where the others have miserably come to live - who find themselves swept mysteriously into the England of the two World Wars (yes: both of them). What makes the book so good is its fairness towards all the cultures concerned. Unlike most time-travel books, this one explores the differences not just in speech (which is brilliantly done) but in thought-patterns. Californian Hannah, used to analysing her feelings in depth with her family, finds herself living with an old-style, reticent Englishwoman who will protect children from unsuitable subjects but not from brisk physical punishment; Brandon, who is black, faces shocking colour-prejudice from some people but kindness and friendship from others who have never met a black person before and innocently describe him as "coloured". Some of the book is very funny - Hannah, in 1940, disgusted by the cigarette smoke everywhere; Brandon, in 1915, realizing that he will have to use a chamber pot - and there are some heart-wrenching bits too. Young readers will learn a lot from it (the target-audience is 9 and up), but will find it above all an exciting, powerful story.
It's a great read. You should buy it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing time travel book with great historical detail!, August 27, 2010
I'll admit, the opening of this book was a little slow for me. All the time spent with Hannah and Alex before they go back in time (and before they even get to Georgia), didn't really do anything for me. BUT, if you stick it out through Hannah's whining about how unfair her life is (actually, this continues throughout the book), they'll meet up with Brandon and end up in WWII England where things get very cool. In WWII England, Hannah, Alex and Brandon are all evacuees for the London, sent to the English countryside to escape the Blitz. Hannah and Alex are taken in by an almost welcoming couple. Brandon, who is black, is taken back to London. Though black children were also evacuated during the bombings of London, it was much harder to find people to take them in. Also, black people weren't all that common in England during this time, so Brandon spends the entire book being kind of a novelty. Hannah and Alex are left to get used to the British countryside during the war and desperately try to find out what happened to Brandon in a society that doesn't tell unpleasant things to children. Meanwhile, Brandon runs away from the man who took him back to London and is presumed dead after a bombing.
But he's not dead; he's really in WWI England. He's even in the same town as Hannah and Alex, just 25 years earlier! Brandon manages to find friendly people (with some help) and even a job, but being black is a much rarer thing in 1915 than it was in 1940. And the attitudes toward black people weren't all that great either. In her acknowledgments, Laing states that the past is not particularly politically correct, which is true, and neither is her portrayal of it. The scenes set both in 1915 and in 1940 are rich in historical detail, including the attitudes of the people in them. While Alex seems to go along pretty fine throughout the story, Hannah is constantly bristled by the treatment of children (what she considers a beating, everyone else considers a well-deserved spanking) and Brandon is constantly affected by peoples reactions to him as a "colored" young man. Though Brandon makes it through his time traveling experience suffering from nothing more than hateful words, the black people he meets both during The Great War (WWI) and WWII do not fare as well.
I managed to get completely caught up in this book. There is a story inside a story that needs solving in order for Hannah, Alex and Brandon to make it back to 21st century Georgia, and though they don't understand how or why, it is connected to their present day lives. Also, given that he's in the same town, Brandon's experiences in 1915 England have some really close ties to the people he, Hannah and Alex meet in WWII England. There were so many ways that all of these connections and different-name-same-person instances could have been screwed up or over simplified, but Laing manages to make them all make sense and even manages to make some of them surprising. My only disappointment in this area was Peggy, and it totally wasn't Laing's fault. I simply wanted 1915 Peggy to grow up to be a different person, but not everyone can live up to their full potential (I'm still angry about who she grew up to be, but I don't want to ruin the surprise).
In short, this is a great time travel book. I wasn't so caught up in the logistics of the time traveling that I lost the ability to be caught up in the times where they ended up. It's also a great look at the day-to-day lives of some of the people left behind in England during the fighting of each world war.
Book source: Review copy provided by the author
PS - This book has a new cover, not shown here, which is a big improvement!
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