There's a bit when Lexie eats a live grub, and manages to appreciate the taste. The Aboriginal culture is exoticized, yes, but through the eyes of a child for whom it is more fascinated interest than colonialist superiority the Aboriginal culture is not less than or worse than the European culture. A halcyon time ensues, with the white girl learning some of the language and culture of her new friend (rather magically, and Lexie takes it rather for granted that they can talk to each other), with much laughter and joy. This is the story of Lexie, a white girl in 1950s Tasmania, who travels back in time to the 19th century where she is befriended by Merrina, an aboriginal Tasmanian girl. I gave it five stars, but with a note of caution. I have a classic for this week's Timeslip Tuesday- Tangara, by the great Australian author Nan Chauncy (1960). (Elliot is described as dark-skinned, and shown on the cover thus, and so I'm counting this as one for more list of diverse middle grade sci fi/fantasy). (there was only thing that bothered me-as an adult, I was rather distressed about kids being taken in as babies, and how little the Academy does to be a warm and nurturing place, which explains a lot about poor Elliot!)īut in any event, I would definitely read another book about the Glitchers! And it was a fun story in its own right, with the threat to the Academy giving the story dramatic forward progress while still leaving lots of room for the more personal story of Elliot and Regan figuring things out. There's enough consideration about the ethics of the whole set-up to give the Glitchers the moral high ground, while being thought provoking. The time travel is brisk and to the point the kids can't interact with the past for fear of changing it themselves, so it's more a matter of observation, survival, and capturing the enemy. Regan has almost preternatural intuition when it comes to identifying that person, and Elliot has a wealth of knowledge and a respect of the rules, so they do actually complement each other. The task in each mission is to identify and foil the person trying to change the past. It beautifully vivid time travel to a variety of periods (mostly simulations sending them into pivotal moments of American history, like Gettysburg and Lincoln's assassination).
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For the rest of their lives as Glitchers (which won't be that long, because time travel burns a person out, forcing adults to retire early), they will have to work together.īut to do that, they will have to figure out how to get along, and figure out the clues given them from the future in order to save the Academy and the Glitchers from a threat to its very existence by their enemies who want to change the past. And so, with no say in the matter, they are shipped off to an even more secret campus of the Academy to train together.
Competing in a stimulated mission challenge, they unwittingly demonstrate that to the Academy staff that they make a great team. Not content with implicating the two kids in an illegal manipulation of time, fate throws another wrench in their lives. It's a crypt note warning of things to come and things that must be done, and both kids are appalled to find themselves entangled in one of the very butterfly effects they are supposed to be working to stop. But fate throws them together when Regan finds a note left to her by someone from the future, and Elliot intercepts it. The two of them dislike each other lots-Elliot thinks Regan is a spoiled princess, and Regan thinks Elliot is a know-it-all jerk. Regan's mom happens to be the director, but Elliot has no memories of his family. They don't have a choice about this-all kids with this gene are gathered in by the Academy as infants. Regan and Elliot both have the gene that lets them time travel, and both are students at the Academy which trains kids like them to be Glitchers, going back in time on missions to keep history safe from interference by those who would alter what actually happened. I really enjoyed Glitch, by Laura Martin (Harper Collins, June 2020)-not only was there fun time travel, but it was also a school story with an enemies into friends twist, so it was right up my alley!
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