Fractured Tide

Lutz, Leslie. Fractured Tide. 2020. 336p. ISBN 9780310770107.

Like a fish in water, Sia loves to dive and explore shipwrecks. Running a charter boat with her mother and younger brother, Sia takes passengers out into the Florida Keys, where they can explore ships that sank years ago. Homeschooled on the boat, there's nowhere else Sia would rather be. And her life would be perfect, if only her dad wasn't in prison following a violent assault.

A dive at an old World War II wreck that starts just like the others, filled with the odd tourist, ends terribly when one of the divers Sia was charged with drowns. At first, Sia can't explain what happened to her mother, who is devastated. Sia can't or won't comprehend the huge grey shape with wiggling tentacles that seized the man and killed him. When their boat stops working, they are rescued by another charter boat, this one captained by a jerk named Phil and carrying students who are conducting a science expedition. Among these students are people Sia knows. Ben, a boy she kind of likes, and Stephanie, a girl she got in trouble and who happens to be Ben's ex-girlfriend.

When that ship is attacked by the monster and sunk, Sia washes ashore on a seemingly deserted island with her younger brother Felix, Ben, and Stephanie. Sia is confronted by another shipwrecked guy, who has a gun, but he disappears in the jungle. Without food or water, the teens must survive on the island, but they soon notice that everything seems to repeat over and over. And Sia has visions of things that have happened before, giving her hints as to actions she has taken in previous iterations of the loop they are caught in. 

With a monster still lurking in the water, with an island filled with secrets, and with a lunatic man who thinks he's a sailor from the sunken World War II wreck, Sia will need all of her survival and diving skills to keep her friends alive one more day ...

A great science fiction story reminiscent of the movie Ground Hog Day and the series Lost, the protagonists are caught in a perpetual loop that they must escape. Sia's feelings, experiences, and emotions are raw as she struggles with her current reality. Told in the form of diary entries, Fractured Tide captures the angst and agony of being caught with no way to escape.

When You Reach Me

Stead, Rebecca. When You Reach Me. 2009. 199p. ISBN 9780385737425. Available at FIC STE on the library shelves.

It is 1979, and Miranda and her single mother live together in a rundown apartment in New York city. Recently, a homeless person has started hanging out by her apartment building, and he's perfectly crazy. He incessantly repeats the same four words: book, key, shoe, coat, and he often sleeps with his head underneath the mailbox by the building. Other things are changing as well in her life. Her best friend Sal, the boy who lives downstairs, has been distant ever since he was beat up by Marcus, a boy who lives above the garage next door, and now he doesn't want to play anymore. Her mother is in a serious relationship with Richard, and there's talk of marriage. Things at school are also different, as Miranda starts hanging out with Annemarie following the latter's fallout with Julia, and they are joined by Colin, the class clown.

Then things get weirder. Miranda finds a piece of paper in her favorite book telling her that things are going to happen to her, and she needs to be on the lookout. The letter also requests that she writes down everything that led to this moment. At first she's confused, and her mother tells her it was probably a gag or an old note left for someone else. But as more notes appear, with knowledge of future events, Miranda, whose favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, cannot stop thinking about time traveling.

As she helps her mother prepare for her big appearance on the television show The $20,000 Pyramid, she also tries to figure what is happening and what the letters mean. Can Miranda discover in time the tragedy she is supposed to prevent?

A Newberry winner, When You Reach Me represents innocence and the growing up that invariably happens to people. Miranda is getting older, and as people change around her, so does she. Her voice is loud and clear, and she and her friends are realistically portrayed. Fans of Star Girl will appreciate the way Miranda lives in the moment but can also find nostalgia in the past, and look forward to a future she is catching glimpses of.

Displacement

Hughes, Kiku. Displacement. 2020. 283p. ISBN 978-1-250-19354-4. Available on the graphic novels section of the library.

Kiku and her mother are taking a vacation in San Francisco, looking for information about the past of a grandmother Kiku never knew. Back in 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during the Second World War, Kiku's grandmother, Ernestina, was interned along with her parents and most of the Japanese-American community of the West Coast in what was little better than concentration camps. 

The San Francisco of today has changed dramatically, and most evidence of this violent policy is gone. Kiku, however, finds herself transported in time back to the 1940s. She meets her grandmother, and finds herself carted off to a displacement camp. Kiku goes through two time displacements, but doesn't mention anything to her mother in case she thinks her daughter is going crazy or worse. On the third displacement, Kiku finds herself truly stuck back in time, and now she must adapt to live in the camps. Gaining a first-row seat in one of America's worst civil-rights abuse, Kiku bears witness to the pain and suffering the issei, the first generation Japanese immigrants, and their sons and daughters, the nissei, went through during the Second World War. Kiku also makes friends, and becomes part of the resistance that opposes the loss of civil liberties in the camps.

This beautifully-illustrated graphic novel provides a good look at a relatively unknown period of our history. Fans of history and of the Second World War will find the information contained in this book helpful to provide a better understanding of what Japanese-Americans on the West Coast lived through. Read We Hereby Refuse for another view of the Japanese-American experience in the camps.

Kindred

 Butler, Octavia. Kindred. 2004 (first published 1979). 287p. ISBN 9780807083697. Available at FIC BUT on the library shelves.

It is June 1976, and the United States is about to turn 200 years old. Dana, an African-American writer, has just moved in a new house in Los Angeles with her husband, Kevin, who is also a writer. Kevin is White, but in Southern California a mixed couple does not even raise an eyebrow. While moving books on a bookshelf, Dana suddenly feels very dizzy, and she passes out. She comes to on the side of a river, where a red-headed boy is struggling in the water, his mother yelling on the shore. 

Without thinking, Dana jumps in the river and saves the young boy. Instead of being grateful, the young boy's mother is very upset at Dana, and she tells her to get away from Rufus, her son. Her husband soon arrives with a shotgun, and threatens Dana. She faints again, and wakes up with Kevin holding her. Even though she was gone for about an hour, it has only been a few seconds since she collapsed. If she wasn't wet, Dana would have assumed she had dreamed this whole sequence.

Dana takes a shower and changes clothes, only to become dizzy again and passes out. She finds herself in a house, where the same boy as before, but now a few years older, has lit a curtain on fire. She manages to put the fire out. In a conversation with Rufus, she realizes she has traveled back to 1815 in rural Maryland, and finds herself in the room of the plantation owner's son. Being African-American, she is presumed to be a runaway slave, so Rufus directs her to the house of a free woman, where she meets Alice Greenwood. Remembering an inscription in her family bible, which has been handed down over many generations, Dana suddenly realizes that both Alice and Rufus are her ancestors. Threatened with rape, Dana faints and wakes up back in Los Angeles, where only a few minutes have gone by.

Over the next two weeks, Dana travels back to Rufus and the plantation several times. Every time the boy's life is threatened, Dana finds herself pulled in, and every time her own life is threatened, she finds herself pulled out. She learns to live on the plantation and the desperation and dangers that slaves faced. Can Dana survive this ordeal long enough to navigate the webs of violence and ensure that her family survives?

A great science-fiction story that incorporates a history many readers are not familiar with, Kindred provides the perspective of someone who comes from the future and who is being forced into the role of a slave. Fans of historical novels will not be distracted by the time-traveling aspect and will appreciate Dana's struggle to reconcile modern ideas of race relations with her ancestors' bigotry and cleaved social norms.

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?

Future Threat

Briggs, Elizabeth. Future Threat. 2017. 266p. ISBN 978-0-8075-2684-2. Available as eBook on Overdrive.

Six months ago in Future Shock, Elena, Adam, Chris and two others travelled forward in time to a life thirty years in the future. Sent to collect and bring back new technologies, they were instructed not to look into their future selves to avoid a sickness called “Future Shock.” Of course they did, and Elena discovered that she died shortly after her return from the future. She was able to modify it and avoided the fate that was waiting for her.

Now Aether Corporation is back, and they want Elena, Adam and Chris’ help again. A group has recently travelled to the future, but one of them did not return. The trio agrees to perform this action one more time, but only if Aether leave them alone afterwards, a condition the company readily agrees to. Once again in the future, Elena realizes that it is a lot better than the last one. Adam and her are married, they have a child, and together with Chris they run a multinational corporation designed to improve humanity. Things immediately go awry, however, when the group separates. Kevin, the missing man, is found dead alongside Chris.

Crushed by Chris’ death and what it means for the future, Elena and Adam are determined to return to the future yet one more time to see if they can fix things. That third future looks very bleak. And as things continue to go wrong, more complications arise and more lives are lost. Should they risk one more trip to help those they love or is the future already mapped out for them?

The Time Machine

Wells, H. G. The Time Machine. 2000. 118p. ISBN 0-03-056476-X. Available at 823 WEL on the library shelves and as an eBook on Overdrive.

Having invented a machine that allows travel through time, an English scientist informs his dinner guests of the fourth dimension of time and claims that he will prove it with his machine. The following week, when the guests return to the scientist’s estate, they are more than puzzled to find him dirty, bruised and haggard. He reveals to them that he has traveled over 800,000 years in the future.

Through an unbelievable tale, the Time Traveler describes his encounter with the children-like people of the Eloi, a society of indolent humans descendents who seem to have neither curiosity nor desire to improve their lot. At first the Time Traveler is enchanted by their lack of work and their diets based on fruit, yet he can’t escape the conclusion that this is what happens when humans no longer need strength and intelligence. When he discovers that his time machine has been move in a building with locked doors, the Time Traveler panics. He must retrieve the machine otherwise he will never be able to go home.

Discovering the presence of another race of human descendents he dubs the Morlocks living in the depths of the world, the Time Traveler realizes that they are responsible for removing his machine. Having saved the life of Weena, an Eloi who was drowning, the Time Traveler and the girl travel through the forest to visit ancient sites, but are attacked on their way back. Now armed with matches and a weapon, the Time Traveler fights the Morlocks back, but Weena disappears in the process. Ready to return home, he realizes that the doors to the building where his machine is kept are opened, but it most likely is a Morlock trap.

The first novel to make extensive use of the concept of time travel, The Time Traveler opened the door to a new genre of science fiction still popular to this day.

The Book of Story Beginnings

Kladstrup, Kristin. The Book of Story Beginnings. 2006. 360p. ISBN 978-978-0-329-65754-3. Available as an eBook from Overdrive.

Lucy Martin and her family are moving from New York City to a rustic farmhouse in Iowa. Owned by her father’s great aunt before her death, the house is in the middle of nowhere with a view of the interstate in the distance. Lucy’s father has lost his job, while her mother works hard as an home-based editor, so moving means not paying rent and a chance for new beginnings. For Lucy, however, it means leaving her friends and the only life she’s known behind. Plus, the house is the scene of Oscar’s disappearance.

Back in 1914, Oscar, Lucy’s great-great uncle disappeared. His sister, who owned the house before she died, swore to her dying breath that she saw Oscar row out to sea in a boat. But how can this be? Iowa is nowhere near an ocean. She spent the rest of her life focused on magic, trying to bring Oscar back. Lucy is intrigued by this mystery, until she discovers that their new housecat Walter is actually Oscar, who has just returned from an island ruled by a Queen who loves birds and a King who loves cats. Oscar discovered the Book of Story Beginnings, where the start of stories can be composed. If the book likes the story, it happens. If it doesn’t, then the story erase itself.

In the process of playing with alchemy, her father transforms himself into a raven which escapes through the window, and a drop from the magical potion hits the cat and transforms it back into Oscar. Now both Lucy and Oscar must work together to find an appropriate story beginning to help them find her father while at the same time resolving all of the other issues Oscar’s careless story beginnings have started.

This is a great story for middle school students and readers who enjoy magic and fairy tales. The characters are realistic and the action is constant. The land of Cat-n-Berd is intriguing and will fascinate. Based on the concept of what happens to characters in your favorite book when the story end, this story itself will enchant and lead the reader to wonder, what are my favorite characters up to today?

Emerald Green

Gier, Kerstin. Emerald Green. Final book of the Ruby Red trilogy. 2013. 451p. ISBN 0-8050-9267-6. Available at FIC GIE on the library shelves.

The mystery surrounding the closing of the Circle in the Chronograph deepens. In Sapphire Blue, Gwyneth’s relationship to Gideon had collapsed, and she found herself very much hurt by his actions. The creepy Count de Saint-Germain was still pursuing the plans he set forth in the 1700s, and the Guardians of the Time Travel clique kept a close eye on Gwyneth, who should never have been the Ruby in the first place.

In Emerald Green, the time for games is over. Gwyneth must figure out a way to deal with Gideon, while fending off the ever more intrusive actions by her cousin Charlotte to undermine her. Armed with the ability to time travel independently from the Guardians, she visits her grandfather in 1953 and begins to unravel a deadly plot centered around her. The deeper she digs, the worse things she discovers and the closer she gets to the traitor among the Guardians. A traitor that would see her dead. At the same time, she must continue her daily life as a student in school. The balancing between the two very distinct lives are exerting a toll on Gwyneth, and as her mother told her, she cannot trust anyone.

The past is literally coming alive, but now Gwyneth must navigate a treacherous environment to survive. Her life will depend on whom, in the end, she decides to trust with her secrets. Trust wrong, and she ends up dead. Trust right, and the Count de Saint-Germain’s secrets will be laid bare and the Guardians will have no hold on her. What will Gwyneth choose?

Future Shock

Briggs, Elizabeth. Future Shock. 2016. 265p. ISBN 0-8075-2682-7. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Elena Martinez has bounced from foster home to foster home ever since her alcoholic father killed her mother in a fit of rage when she was seven. Now two months away from turning eighteen, Elena knows she needs to find work and quick, otherwise there will be no future for her. Elena possesses an eidetic memory, which means she remembers everything she sees, does, or read. This capability scares others, however, so she rarely reveals it.

Life in the foster system is rough, so when she is approached by Aether Corporation to participate in a secret project that will pay her handsomely, she is thorn. On one hand the money would set her up to do pretty much anything she wanted, including going to college. On the other hand, the risks involved are very high. Aether wants her and four other foster kids to travel to the future, retrieve any technology and information they can, then travel back. They will be travel 10 years ahead, and stay there for 24 hours. The only restriction? They can’t contact themselves otherwise  it could cause future shock and break their present selves.

Now Elena must depend on four other kids, including gorgeous and mysterious Adam, to keep safe for 24 hours. But many things can change in one day, and knowledge of the future will forever alter her perception of the present.

Fans of time traveling stories will enjoy the tight storyline and hints that are dropped throughout the book but only comprehensible in hindsight. Traveling to the future is an interesting twist on the time travel theme. Recommend this book to readers who liked Ruby Red. Elena and Adam's story continues in Future Threat.

Sapphire Blue

Gier, Kierstin. Sapphire Blue. Book 2 of the Ruby Red trilogy. 2012. 362p. ISBN 0-8050-9266-8. Available at FIC GIE on the library shelves.

In Ruby Red, Gwen discovered that she was the Ruby, the 12th and final member of the Circle of Twelve, a group of time-travellers who seek to fulfil the prophecy, but two of the other members, one of them her cousin, have broken ranks and are fighting back against the Circle’s plans.

Now, Gwen is trying to figure out what is actually taking place and why her cousin would escape with one of the chronometers that enable time travel. The Count de St-Germain, the man who started the Circle, lives in the 1700s and Gwen must travel back to meet him again. She also meets her grandfather back in 1948, and with him she begins to question the real purpose of the Circle.

Assisted by a gargoyle demon only visible to her in her own time, Gwen is also trying to navigate the love / hate relationship she has with Gideon, the Diamond and himself a time traveller. And as if life wasn’t hard enough already, she still has to go to school and study. Can Gwen discover what the true purpose of the Circle is before it is too late?

The story concludes in Emerald Green.

Ruby Red

Gier, Kerstin. Ruby Red. Book 1 of the Precious Stone Trilogy. 2011. 330p. ISBN 978-0-8050-9252-3. Available at FIC GIE on the library shelves.

Gwyneth Shepherd has always grown up in the shadow of her smart, educated, and pretty cousin Charlotte. The Montrose family has passed the traveling gene through the mother for eons, and it has been preparing Charlotte these last sixteen years to become one of the twelve time travelers who have existed since the beginning of time. Born a single day later than her cousin, Gwyneth escaped the regiment and dedication that came with the role Charlotte is expected to play in the secret society of the Guardians and their time-traveling ways. She has grown as carefree as possible, given that her father died of leukemia when she was only seven years old. Able to see and converse with ghosts, Gwyneth considers herself lucky.

Until she suddenly jumps through time, going back to a period a few hundred years ago. How could this be? Only Charlotte should be able to do this, but even her beautiful cousin has not yet managed to travel through time. After two more incidents, Gwyneth comes clean to her mother, and, much to her relief, her mother believes her. Both of them travel to the Temple, where the Guardians meet. Gwyneth discovers that her mother has in fact lied about her birth day. She was indeed born on the same day as Charlotte, and the prophecy that projected her birth and role was in fact for her and not for her cousin. But why would her mother lie? What was she protecting her from?

Gwyneth must now work with Gideon, another handsome time traveler two years her elder to track the 12 time travelers throughout history. They must also figure out why the Count wishes to get his hand on a blood sample of each of the twelve. Gideon, whose family transmits the time travel gene through the father line, has trained with Charlotte and expected her to join him, but now he must deal with Gwyneth, who is wholly unprepared for this mission. But when they are attacked in two different pasts, they realize that someone is plotting to stop them before they can discover the secret chronograph. Who can they trust to help them?

This story moves at breakneck speed and the time traveling is very well explained. Fans of mysteries and romance such as the Finishing School series will thoroughly enjoy this book. The story continues in Sapphire Blue.

Day of the Assassins

O’Brien, Johnny. Day of the Assassins. Book 1 of the Jack Christie Adventure series. 2009. 224p. ISBN 9780763645953. Available at FIC OBR on the library shelves.

Jack Christie is a regular teenager. His father left when he was three, and he’s lived his whole life with his loving mother in Scotland. At fifteen, Jack loves playing video games, and his current favorite is Point-of-Departure, a World War I simulation. His best friend Angus also likes to play it, and they often talk about what life would have been like then. It’s a typical teenage life.

When Jack receives a history book from a father he doesn’t know, however, that things are about to change drastically. Jack and Angus discover a secret workshop in Jack’s basement, and the boys learn that there is a conflict between two secret organizations, both of which possess time machines. The first group seeks to travel back in time and fix some of the errors of the past, while the second group believe in non-intervention in past affairs.

Pawns in the fight between these two groups, Jack and Angus travel back in time to August 1914, and find themselves in Belgrade as Archduke Ferdinand is visiting. The boys know that the assassination of Ferdinand is the match that lights the First World War. They now face a most difficult choice: Prevent the assassination and irrevocably change world history (and their own!) or let the assassination take place and live with the knowledge that they could have stopped a world tragedy. What choice will they make?

This book is a great “what if” book, and features plenty of action and adventure to boot. Fans of the First World War will enjoy the world setting and the experience of “being” there.

Blackfin Sky

Ellis, Kat. Blackfin Sky. 2014. 304p. ISBN 978-0762455546. FIC ELL on the library shelves.

Skylar Rousseau has always lived in Blackfin, a seaside town named for the whales that pass by. Not many people come here, and that’s how the locals like it. The town and its folks have many quirks, but no one can explain how it is that though Skylar died on the night of her 16th birthday when she fell off the pier and was buried, she has returned three months later, with no recollection of where she has been during that time.

Aided by her friends, Sky discovers that she is a Pathfinder. Blackfin’s secrets have been protecting a horrible truth, and no one is talking about it. Sean becomes her anchor, and he is the only one Sky can use to guide her travels through the Pathways. In a race against time, Sky must find what Gage, an ancient enemy of her parents, wants and how she can thwart his desires to save the lives of those she cares for. Can she find the right path?

Ellis’ debut novel is well paced and features a central mystery surrounded by many tales that intertwine and eventually connect seamlessly at the book’s climax. The main characters are well rounded, and even the supporting cast is believable in their demeanor and their actions. The book is so fast-paced and engaging readers will have a hard time putting it down. Fans of Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys trilogy will enjoy this great tale crafted by Ellis.

All Our Yesterdays

Terrill, Cristin. All Our Yesterdays. 2013. 360p. ISBN 1423176375. FIC TER on the library shelves.

Em has been imprisoned in a secret military facility with her friend Finn for the last four months. The director and the doctor are torturing her and Finn so she will reveal the location of a series of mathematical equations necessary for the Cassandra project, a time travel device located on-site. Alone in her cell, with Finn’s voice next door, Em has more than enough time to consider unlikely means of escape. She is fascinated by the drain in the middle of her cell, not knowing what it is for.

When she manages to steal a spoon and unscrews the cover of the drain, she discovers a letter she wrote to herself, with the 16 different ways in which she and Finn have travelled back in time and tried to stop Cassandra, from stealing the plans to killing the engineer in charge of the project. On this 17th try, the only thing they haven’t tried is kill the doctor, the man who created and designed Cassandra. So now they must escape and travel back four years to eliminate him.

Marina has been in love with James Shaw ever since she moved next door to his D.C. mansion when she was six. A boy genius with an I.Q. off the charts, James has always been awkward around her, and she’s never known whether he loves her back as a sister or more. She’s invited to attend a fundraiser where Nate Shaw, James’ brother and a Congressman from Connecticut will speak along with the Vice-President.

But when Nate is shot, Marina’s world collapses around her. James goes into a tailspin, and threatens to break apart at the seam. An attempt is made on James’ life at the hospital where Nate is being treated, and Marina thinks she recognizes the assailants as older versions of herself and James’ friend Finn. The two timelines intersect, and the race is on to stop the doctor’s plans before they come to fruition.