A Time Traveler's Theory of Relativity

August 1, 2019
Finn discovers his family harbors gifted time travelers whose mission, despite their best efforts, keeps ending in failure. Finn's birthdays--he's nearly 13--are haunted by the loss of his twin sister, Faith, in the Dorset, Vermont, marble quarry at age 3. Now his mother's disappeared. Finding her possessions intact at Gran's, Finn seeks answers. A quantum physics enthusiast, he's read about time-travel and multiple-universe theories, but what Gran has to tell him is incredible: The women in her family Travel through time, though only she and his mom Travel to the future as well as the past. Fearing his mom's lost in time, Gran says Finn must Travel to find her. Because he's male, he'll need the portal created for him in a tree on Dorset Peak. A dangerous, twisty trek through past, present, and future ensues. As versions of his relatives proliferate, their accounts conflicting, Finn increasingly relies on his stalwart friend Gabi. (Gabi and her mom are of Puerto Rican heritage; other characters are presumed white.) Structured like a series opener, the novel ends abruptly, important questions sketchily answered or left unaddressed. If failure to tackle and resolve time travel's thorny plotting challenges disappoints genre aficionados, the vivid setting and appealing characters--Finn and his quirky relatives especially--offer plenty to satisfy readers less invested in the category. This soft-science-fiction debut will resonate with Madeleine L'Engle fans. (author's note) (Science fiction. 9-13)

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October 1, 2019

Gr 5-8-Finn's life has felt incomplete since the death of his twin sister, Faith, when they were three, and now that his mom has disappeared ten years later, it threatens to fall apart. A trip to Gran's does little to help. She warns him not to trust anyone, and dies in her bed the night he arrives. But most disconcerting is the Gran who arrives from five years ago, telling him that theirs is a family of time travelers, that his mother is one, and that his dead sister (snatched out of time) has become not only the most powerful but the most evil of the Travelers. His mother has moved backward and taken Faith with her to try to keep the little girl from growing into the terror revealed by forward travel through all the time lines-in each one of which, she kills Finn. Since only women in the family have the ability to Travel, there's not much Finn can do-until his mother reveals that there's a time-travel portal made specifically for him, and a task that only he can perform. Time travel tends to be a sci-fi construct, but this is definitely a fantasy story, as there's no real explanation of the time traveling beyond "magic." But Finn is an engaging character who has a plucky friend, Gabi, and Faith is a plausible evildoer. Most unusually, the adults believe the kids are capable of saving them all. VERDICT Any young reader who wants to believe that magic can change the harsh realities of life will find much to enjoy here. Recommended for all middle grade fantasy sections.-Elizabeth Friend, Wester Middle School, TX

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2019
Grades 4-6 Finn's upcoming thirteenth birthday is the painful, annual reminder of his twin sister's death. This year, his mother is gone, too. She just needs some time, says Finn's father, but it doesn't help Finn feel any better. Left with his gran for the weekend, science-minded Finn discovers the fantastical truth: the women in his family are time travelers, and his mother has disappeared into another time line to save his sister. She needs Finn's help and, since he lacks the power to travel himself, she's left him a portal. With the help of his best friend Gabi, Finn embarks on a recursive journey through time. Not everyone in this small New England town agrees on what can and should be changed, but what Finn learns is a truth we all need: how we treat people changes everything. Though some time-travel threads remain tangled and would likely frustrate lovers of more rigorous sf mechanics, Valentine's debut is an emotionally compelling and heartfelt tale of love and family that is reminiscent of Tuck Everlasting and A Wrinkle in Time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)