Fast Backward

Patneaude, David. Fast Backward. 2018. 274p. ISBN 978-1-63393-614-0. Available at FIC PAT on the library shelves.

Bobby Hastings has an important job delivering the newspaper to a military base in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. The work that scientists are doing here is top secret, and no one is talking. The Second World War is raging on, and even though Allied armies are closing in on Germany and Japan, the war is far from over. On this early morning in July 1945, Bobby picks up his newspapers at the drop off point, and bikes towards the base. A blast in the distance sends a ball of light miles in the air, and a shockwave reaches him a minute later. Bobby’s not sure what he just saw, but whatever it was, it was impressive and dangerous.

On the base everyone is excitedly talking in hushed tones, and money is exchanged to cover bets that were won or lost. Bobby can’t get any specific information from anyone, including his uncle Pete, who is a soldier on the base, but the cooks mention that the brass was pleased with the explosion. Returning home, Bobby finds a girl about his age, standing dazed and naked near the road. Though she’s puzzled, she wants to know what time it is, specifically what year. Bobby tries to keep his gaze on her eyes, but he’s not entirely successful. Cocoa is clearly underweight and sick. Her English is broken, and she speaks with a German accent.

Bobby takes her home. She tells Bobby she's from the future, a future where Germany developed the atomic bomb before the United States, and prevented the US army from detonating their own. In her past, Germany won the war and conquered the United States, forbidding English being spoken. The world was devastated in the process, however. Now that she’s here, she hopes to change the course of the war, but who will believe a scrawny girl?

Bobby believes her, and, enlisting his parents’ help as well as his uncle Pete, they will attempt to alert the United States government to the threat they are facing. Knowing information that a young girl her age would not have access to helps, but there are some in the government who are not convinced she’s telling the truth, or that she’s not a German spy. Plus, Cocoa can’t remember everything from the history she learned. But as events prove her information to be correct, can Cocoa and Bobby help change the course of history?