Description:
What's the best way to cope with profound grief and loss? Time travel, of course, as practiced by two grieving kids in first-time children's book author Maiya Williams' exceptionally engaging and remarkable debut. While struggling to process their mother's unexpected death, 13-year-old Rowan and his 11-year-old sister Nina spend the summer with their two eccentric aunts in rural Owatannauk, Maine. But as the kids soon discover, Aunt Agatha and Aunt Gertrude are much more than eccentric. Enlisting the aid of Xavier and Xanthe (two smart, sass-mouth twins also stuck in Owatannauk), Rowan and Nina seek to solve the mystery of their aunts' seemingly psychic powers and collection of preternaturally well-preserved "curios." In their investigations, the crew stumbles upon an even bigger mystery involving an apparently haunted hotel equipped with time-traveling elevators, called "alleviators." "What do they alleviate?...Curiosity." Every question answered generates more questions, and before they know it, all four find themselves in another time altogether. Williams (a TV writer and producer for Rugrats and Mad TV) may be new to children's books, but she's no stranger to story-telling. The Golden Hour cleverly combines a hunt across time with Rowan's personal hunt for a stronger sense of self--throughout the book, we follow a journal entry he titles, "Top Ten Reasons My Life Stinks". With an uncanny sense of pace, a fitting balance between humor and drama, and a contagious affection for detail, Williams ends up with a story filled with twists and secrets too good to give away. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes
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