A Time Traveler’s Theory of Relativity

Gr 5-8–Finn’s life has felt incomplete since the death of his twin sister, Faith, when they were three, and now that his mom has disappeared ten years later, it threatens to fall apart. A trip to Gran’s does little to help. She warns him not to trust anyone, and dies in her bed the night he arrives. But most disconcerting is the Gran who arrives from five years ago, telling him that theirs is a family of time travelers, that his mother is one, and that his dead sister (snatched out of time) has become not only the most powerful but the most evil of the Travelers. His mother has moved backward and taken Faith with her to try to keep the little girl from growing into the terror revealed by forward travel through all the time lines—in each one of which, she kills Finn. Since only women in the family have the ability to Travel, there’s not much Finn can do—until his mother reveals that there’s a time-travel portal made specifically for him, and a task that only he can perform. Time travel tends to be a sci-fi construct, but this is definitely a fantasy story, as there’s no real explanation of the time traveling beyond “magic.” But Finn is an engaging character who has a plucky friend, Gabi, and Faith is a plausible evildoer. Most unusually, the adults believe the kids are capable of saving them all.