Chuyển đến nội dung chính

Tangled in Time: the Portal, by Kathryn Lasky, for Timeslip Tuesday

Tangled in Time: the Portal, by Kathryn Lasky (HarperCollins, March 2019), is the story of a girl, Rose, who finds herself traveling back to 16th-century England to serve Princess Elizabeth.  She doesn't stay long, but makes repeated visits that she can't control.  In her own time, she lives with her grandmother, who is suffering from dementia, after her mother was killed in a firey car accident.  Though she's made new friends, there are also horrible over the top mean girl bullies in her new school.  In the past, she manages to be mouthy and 21st century-ish and not be accused of treason or witchcraft, or make a fool of herself.  Also in the past, she finds both a good friend, and her father, who she had thought abandoned her and her mother long ago.  And then there's a bit of a set-up twist for further books....

I just didn't care for this, either as time-travel or as larger whole.  The time travel was what I think of as the sight-seeing kind--even though she's looking for her father, she's not emotionally part of the past as a larger whole. And though there is some magic at work that helps soften her foreignness, she never forgets who she really is and doesn't particularly grow emotionally from being in the past.

Also I found reading about her wandering around anachronistically in Tudor times to be incredibly jarring; the author seems to have made a conscious decision not even to try to make her conform to any semblance of cultural or linguist norms.  I don't mind this in other books, but I think the ones where I don't mind it have a protagonist who is filled with anxiety and introspection about it.

As a larger whole I didn't care for the book much either--the past and present stories didn't seem connected, and the present story is overwhelmed by the truly over-the-top nastiness of the bullying girls.  It seemed like all the notes--the tragedy of Rose's mother, the precariousness of the grandmother's mental health, the bad girls, the new awesome friends, and even Rose's hobby of vintage couture (she has a wildly popular blog) are hit too hard and hurt my read ears.

There are two things, though, that did work for me:  the first is the grandmother's greenhouse, which is a marvelous place, and where the grandmother's mind becomes sharp enough that she can converse with Rose.  The second is that all the history seemed solid; the historical details of the Tudor court and its machinations were presented clearly and vividly.

Kirkus liked it more than I do, and I think young readers, especially those who find Tudor history romantic, will probably also like the book a lot better than me, being less picky about their time travel and more accepting of too-muchness.


Nhận xét

Đăng nhận xét

Popular Posts

The Princess Who Flew with Dragons, by Stephanie Burgis

I still am busily reading elementary/middle grade speculative fiction a in my roles as a judge for the Cybils Awards (mainly going back to re-read things I read early last year), but I am in good enough shape that I treated myself one dreary day last week to a shiny and new and much anticipated book-- The Princess Who Flew with Dragons , by Stephanie Burgis (Bloomsbury, November 2019). This is the third in the series that began with The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart (link to my review), and it's possibly the one I enjoyed most.  I certainly think it was the fastest read; it was a (more or less) single-sitting of about an hour read for me (when I like a book and need to know what's going to happen next, I read faster, and it was relatively short-- 216 pages). Princess Sophia, who we met in Book 2, The Girl with a Dragon Heart , is the main character here, and when her story begins, she's being sent by her older sister, the ruling princess, to a distant city to attend a Worl...
Đăng nhận xét
Đọc thêm

The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away, by Ronald L. Smith (review and interview)

I first had the pleasure of meeting Ronald L. Smith at Kidlitcon back in 2015 (PSA--come to Kidlitcon 2020 in Ann Arbor next March!).  His first middle grade book, Hoodoo, a tale of supernatural horror in the south, had just been published, and I enjoyed it very much ( my review ).  I likewise enjoyed The Mesmerist (2017), about kids fighting evil in 19th century London ( my review ).  I never reviewed Black Panther: the Young Prince (2018)….someday I will.  So in any event, I was very excited about his most recent book, The Owls Have Come to Take Us Away (Clarion Books, February 2019). This is the story of an air force kid, Simon, son of a black mom and a white dad, who's obsessed with aliens.  He's convinced owl-like aliens have arrived, watching and experimenting on humans.  His family has no time or patience for aliens, so Simon is alone with his fears of the Grays, as he calls them.  When something very strange happens on a camping trip with hi...
Đăng nhận xét
Đọc thêm

'Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend' by Matthew Green

This book is enchanting at first sight. Even before I saw the cover, I wanted to read this book. The cover of my galley is very pretty too - although I say I don't judge a book by it's cover, I do. I really do. Budo is Max's imaginary friend. However, Budo is quite real: he has is own thoughts and controls his own actions; he cannot be seen by other people, though, and cannot interact with the "real world". This book follows Budo through Max's daily life and struggles, and through the conflicts and worries of an imaginary friend. Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend  is narrated wonderfully - from a 9-year-old's imagination's point of view - and delves into major concepts such as death, family, and loss. It's one of those book which you can't really classify into "children's book", "young adult novel" or, "adult fiction". It really can be appreciated at any age. It's also unique - you don't get many books tha...
Đăng nhận xét
Đọc thêm