It is hard to imagine a new take on middle school life. There are many books out there about the average life of middle school students. There are the friendships, first loves and family and everything else. Today we are sharing an interesting middle grade novel about a middle school student who time travels each year and all her family and friends do too! The book is Lily Tripp Diary of an Accidental Time Traveler by Amelia Tait. It is recommended for ages 10 to 14.
About the Book:
The start of a brilliantly funny accidental time-travel diary series for tweens. It’s Back to the Future meets Judy Blume, with a 13-year-old girl who tackles timeslip mishaps, laugh-out-loud embarrassing moments, and one unpredictable adventure after another.Hi! I’m Lily. My birthday is in two weeks and I have a big secret: Every New Year's when the clock strikes midnight, I time travel to a new century. Mind-blowing, right!?
Thank goodness my cat, best friend, and school crush always turn up, too. But I still have a ton of problems… like why is my arch-nemesis, Georgia, so good at ye olde insults? How does anyone survive in Ancient Rome without chicken nuggets? Why are my brother’s clothes so ridiculous in every century? And why on earth can’t I stay in one era!?
From Me:
This book is so creative. I love the idea that Lily and her family and peers travel through time each year. She has to figure out how to live in different time periods without looking strange. Her family and peers do not realize they are time traveling and seem like they have always lived in that time period. In this book she leaves the current time and goes to 1621 and then 1972. However, she has lived a year in Roman times, Victorian times and 1922. As she deals with life in a new era, she sees similarities and differences. The other people who time travel with her have some sort of memories of things that happen at each time but not the not the actual time period. Each person seems to have a similar role in each time period. People who are wealthier in current time are wealthier in the past and so forth.
I love how this book teaches different parts of history in ways that are not taught in schools. There are things like the popular looks with hair and makeup as well as clothes. It also has popular sayings and the important societal things. In 1621 church really mattered. It was also popular to use white makeup and then draw a blue vein on your forehead. Double chins were popular as well. Lily realizes how these popular trends would be considered weird in different time periods.
Lily also realizes that people do not change but understanding their circumstances helps her learn more about them and their choices. She realizes the bully is always the bully and others are reacting to various circumstances. It is really interesting to see the differences in time periods and the similarities in society that exist throughout time. The book is truly an interesting read, and it makes you want to keep reading to see what is going to happen to Lily next. It shares some of the typical middle school themes--crushes, friends, bullies, family issues but does it all in a unique and interesting way. I love that Amelia Tait did the research to figure out what the societal trends were. She interviewed people who were tweens/teens in the 1970s and researched for the 1620s.
This book is perfect for a summer read or a classroom read. It brings up the issues kids face every day and issues that haven't been faced in centuries. Can we talk witch trials? It gives a look at different historical time periods and would be a wonderful connection between literature and history class. I can see kids finding it interesting and enjoying the various actions.
