The two girls feel an instant kinship: Miri must save Molly, of course-but how? Barrows has crafted a serviceable time-travel fantasy with the right amount of moving back and forth (Miri's own glasses are her ticket back to the 21st century) and reflection on the consequences of changing the past.
Molly's aunt would happily send her to an orphanage, while her cousin, a brute of the first order (and a petty thief to boot), delights in torturing her. When she finds a lens to a pair of eyeglasses taped to the baseboard of her room in the old Victorian home her family has just moved into, she is pulled through time to 1935, where the orphaned Molly relies on the dubious kindness of relatives. Miri, singleton daughter sandwiched between two sets of twins, feels depressingly ordinary. More than just a time-travel adventure, the story also realistically depicts Miri's complicated relationships with her siblings. Her humdrum life changes when a magic eye-glass lens transports her back through time to 1935 where she meets Molly, a girl very much like Miri herself. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.Įleven-year-old Miri is ordinary, a singleton middle child between two sets of twin siblings. Still, this is pleasing fare that adds a bit of history and a tad of mystery into the mix. Although Barrows once again presents utterly real kids, time travel is the core of the story, and though the logic seems thought out, readers may feel as Miri does: that getting their heads around the slippery concept gives them a headache.
There she meets Molly, who lived in the same house, under the thumb of her violent cousin. Miri becomes committed to bringing Molly to the present, but how is she going to do that? Finally, she puts together a plan, but so much depends on timing, to say nothing of the nature of time itself. But soon after the family moves to an old Victorian house, Miri has something to take her mind off her siblings. Looking through the lens of an old eyeglass, she is transported back to 1935.
Her older brothers torment, while her toddler sisters annoy. Barrows, author of the well-received Ivy and Bean (2006), tries her hand at a time-slip story.
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