I picked up this prepub at Midwinter, as it was described as “The Time Traveler’s Wife” for teens. I’m not so sure about that description, catchy though it may by, though this is a sweet, romantic, time travel story.
After a troubled time with a dreadful boyfriend Amy has moved to the rural Northwest to live with her great aunt. She is nervous about this new start and anxious about making friends and having a bad reputation precede her. When she meets Henry after walking through a dense mist into the clearing behind her aunt’s trailer she is attracted to his gentle manners and thoughtful ways. He seems almost not of her time and, in fact, he isn’t. Henry and his mother and grandfather have been stuck in the same summer during WWII ever since Henry offered up a particular prayer. This is a very charming twist to traditional time travel because it’s not so much that Amy time travels, more that she happens upon Henry, who is stuck in time (like Brigadoon?) One of the other things I thought interesting was that what appeals to Amy is not only the romanticized pace of the time period, but also the manners and gentility of boys.
A quick read with a particularly wonderful ending.
