Not exactly time travel, but friendship across time. Lovely book, touching conclusion. Good characters. I'm very glad I stumbled across this one. ( )

The Boy From Tomorrow is another great read for later elementary school students and middle grade readers who like adventure/mystery/scifi. It has “ghost story” listed as a genre, but I dare say this is less a ghost story as one about jumping through time as a boy in the present communicates with a girl from the past – but both in their own present day. Confused?

This is a dual-timeline story with the characters of Josie and Alec connecting through time via a “talking board” (a ouija board). Josie’s mother is manipulative and horrid, a charlatan of a psychic, and when she discovers the communication between Josie and the future, she forces Alec to provide her with information from the future so she can profit. The book moves along with a steady pace, and the supporting characters offer a little relief to what (at least at the beginning) often had an eerie feel – until the two children figured out just what was going on.

This one kept the pages turning!

I was provided an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley; all opinions are my own. ( )

I couldn't put this down! I never read while walking, but I read the last chapter walking home from the subway. It's not an easy thing to maintain suspense in a time travel story in which the present-day character could theoretically look up everything about the historical character's life, but DeAngelis has done it. I never felt that Alec was unrealistically putting off learning about his friend, especially given the thoughtful conversations they had about whether it's better to know the future or not.

Alec and his friend Danny are the kind of boys I love reading: realistically funny and appreciative of fart jokes, while also being emotionally aware, concerned with issues of friendship, and interested in learning about the world. Josie's chapters felt appropriate to the time period but never romanticized. And the characters grow up in an epilogue! Harry Potter notwithstanding, I have an unreasonable love of epilogues.

This book is perhaps best described as "middle-grade [b:The Time Traveler's Wife|18619684|The Time Traveler's Wife|Audrey Niffenegger|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1380660571s/18619684.jpg|2153746]," but since that won't work for selling it to kids: I'd say this is for 5th and up (or strong younger readers) who like mysteries with plenty of realistic fiction friendship story and the barest hint of creepiness. [b:Doll Bones|15944406|Doll Bones|Holly Black|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1424981042s/15944406.jpg|19206674] or [b:When You Reach Me|5310515|When You Reach Me|Rebecca Stead|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1441759322s/5310515.jpg|6608018] would be good read-alikes. ( )

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book almost in one sitting, because I simply needed to know what happened next. (Also, can we talk about how nice the cover is?)

As you can see from the blurb, this story is about two (technically three) children, Josie and Alec. They are the same age, and they live in the same house in the same room… a hundred years apart. I absolutely loved all the ways they managed to send messages to each other, like the letters or the writing on the windowsill. As Josie said, for every flower Alec found, they had to plant the seed first.

Read full review on my blog. ( )

The Boy From Tomorrow reminded me strongly of Voices After Midnight by Richard Peck, which I loved as a kid. Alec moves with his mom into a house at 444 Sparrow Street, Edwardstown, after his parents divorce. Soon after they move in, Alec discovers a talking board (Ouija board), and he and his new friend Danny use it to communicate with some of the house's previous inhabitants: Josie Clifford, her little sister Cassie, and their tutor, Emily. In the girls' time, the board belonged to their mother, Lavinia Clifford, who makes her living talking to spirits, but is a cold and cruel mother to the girls.

First through the board, then through letters that Josie leaves for Alec to find, and through the archives at the local library, Alec gets to know the girls, and becomes more and more concerned for them, especially after their mother sends Emily away and the girls are confined to the house. Alec convinces Josie that they must escape their situation, and she seizes the opportunity when it arrives; she writes a letter to Dr. Jennings, the psychical researcher who was observing their mother. Jennings forwards the letter to Emily's uncle, and Emily comes to rescue them.

Once the girls leave the house, Alec can no longer talk to them - he can only research everything about their lives. And he can follow the last clue they left: the return address on the envelope that arrived containing the key to the locked room that had been Emily's, where the girls left a time capsule (including Mrs. Gubbin's, an old doll that told Cassie things about the past and future) for Alec to find. He waits to do this until college, when he goes to the address in New York and finds Josie and Cassie's family, and the last letter Josie left for him.

Tense, haunting, and mysterious, The Boy From Tomorrow has many painful moments, but these are outweighed by the kids' connection to each other in various ways throughout time. Recommended for fans of historical fiction, time travel, and low fantasy.

See also: Voices After Midnight by Richard Peck, Doll Bones by Holly Black, Out of the Wild Night by Blue Balliet (Ms. B rec)

Quotes

"I don't want to be afraid. I don't want to run and hide whenever I meet a thing I can't understand. And I think...I think there must be a reason why he's permitted to speak to us." (Josie to Emily, 75)

...and his mother remarked with satisfaction that sometimes nostalgia really is as nice as it used to be. (109)

If you questioned your own convictions, you'd end up either smashing them or strengthening them, wouldn't you? (Alec, 110)

"There is no such thing as magic. It is simply science we have yet to comprehend." (Dr. Jennings to Josie, 134)

A wise man once observed that you aren't aware you have any illusions until they're taken from you... (237)

Meanwhile, None of This Has Even Happened Yet (chapter 39) ( )