Seven Stories Up

November 4, 2013
Snyder returns with a story that, like her Bigger Than a Breadbox (2011), offers a relatable heroine and a touch of magic. When 12-year-old Annie Jaffin and her mother visit Annie’s estranged, dying grandmother in the shuttered Baltimore hotel she grew up in, the woman Annie encounters is angry and aggressive. After a strange storm, however, Annie wakes up 50 years earlier, in 1937, where she meets her grandmother as a curious, kind, and deeply isolated child. Molly spends her days cloistered away in her “Lonely Room” because of her asthma; she wished for a friend and has no clue that Annie is actually her granddaughter. Because Annie knows that Molly will live to old age, they escape Molly’s locked room via the fire escape and seize the day. Through their adventures, Molly’s eyes gradually open to the realities outside the hotel walls, while Annie worries about getting home and whether she’s changing the future for better or worse. Friendship, connection, and understanding are at the heart of this warm, introspective story about the events that shape a person. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM.

November 15, 2013
A 12-year-old in 1987 time travels a half-century into the past and meets her own grandmother at the same age. Annie Jaffin and her mom visit Annie's grandmother, a woman she barely knows. The dying older woman still resides in the once-grand hotel her family owned and where she and her daughter, Annie's mom, grew up. The reunion is grim: Her bitter, angry grandmother hurls recriminations at the two. That night, Annie dons a sleep mask, her world goes dark, and...next morning, she's shocked to awaken in the hotel room of a girl called Molly who gradually reveals that it's 50 years earlier--and that her given name is Mary Moran: Annie's grandmother's name. Annie wisely keeps the relationship a secret. Molly, kept almost completely sequestered for health reasons, relishes this new "friend's" company, and the pair embark on a series of whirlwind adventures beyond the hotel's environs. The novel's premise is tantalizing, but its execution lacks true spark. The girls are likable, but characterizations are superficial; certain plot details are confusing; the Great Depression barely registers; and readers may wonder why neither girl is more curious about each other's time and lifestyle than she is. Youngsters may also wonder how the vivacious though depressed and lonely young Molly grew up to be such a tartar; they will see that some circumstances in her childhood seem to have changed so as to presage a happier future. A surprise at the end disappoints and doesn't resolve matters. Overall, there are some pleasures, but this is time travel lite. (author's note) (Fantasy. 9-12)

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January 1, 2014

Gr 4-6-Twelve-year-old Annie, visiting the dying grandmother she's never before met, awakes in 1937 and meets the woman all over again: a lonely girl of Annie's own age, locked away from the outside world of Depression-era Baltimore by her poor health and the wishes of her wealthy hotel-owning family. Together, the two girls seek adventures in the colorful city below. The story is ultimately about the transformative power of deep friendship and the ways new experiences can shape our lives, but Snyder also makes it about the social disparities between rich and poor, the meaning of family, standing up for oneself, and living life to the fullest. Not only is the author's well-researched 1937 Baltimore a vibrant and enticing character in its own right, but both Annie and Molly are utterly believable, engaging personalities. The perfectly paced time-travel conundrum is well balanced within the larger plot, and the entire book is imbued with the same sort of forward-driving adventure as Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me (2009) or Laurel Snyder's Bigger Than a Bread Box (2011, both Random). A wide variety of readers will find this book wonderfully satisfying and hard to put down.-Rhona Campbell, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2013
Grades 3-6 What would you do if you had the chance to meet the adults you know back when they were kids? Annie's mother has always kept her birth family a secret, so Annie can't wait to meet her grandmotheruntil her relative turns out to be just plain mean. But something magical happens, and Annie wakes up in 1937 to discover her grandmother as a young girl. Together they embark upon adventures, and Annie uncovers her grandmother's pastwhich helps shape a new future. Her discovery that her grandmother had been sickly as a child and therefore kept locked up compels her to encourage her to take a stand, thereby changing her grandmother's whole attitude to the world around her. Snyder infuses her novel with a touch of magical realism (and, of course, time travel), and many readers will wonder what the grown-ups in their own lives were like as kids. Filled with historical facts that weave seamlessly with the narrative, this is a heartwarming story about knowing, and truly understanding, your family.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
In 1987, twelve-year-old Annie visits her estranged grandmother, Molly, on her deathbed and somehow time travels to 1937 to meet her as a sickly child. In homage to The Secret Garden (referenced explicitly in the text), Annie gives young Molly the courage to explore the outside world. Despite good one-liners and lots of sneaking out, didacticism dissipates the story's tension.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)