Gr 6—8—Life for 13-year-old Shama Katooee isn't easy. Her mother died several years earlier, and now she must eke out a living in a rented room in a Laundromat in LowCity, DC, in 2083. One day, she happens to witness a robbery at a pet store. As she makes her escape, she grabs a BriZance egg from a cage. BriZance birds are avian robots that bond to the DNA of their owners for life. This act of defiance sets off a chain of events that finds her attending Chronos Academy in UpCity, where privileged children are trained to operate a QuanTime machine to go back in time. Shama soon discovers that she is at the school for a special reason: to go back in time and rescue Maye Jones, a girl living in New York City in 2001. Maye could die in the September 11th attacks unless Shama can save her, despite the commanders of the Academy forbidding children from attempting to intervene with past events. This book has an interesting premise that never quite takes off. White sometimes seems more interested in her world-building than in crafting a truly involving story, causing much of the book to be filler and buildup for Shama's attempt to save Maye. In fact, it is Maye's story, rather than Shama's, that is more compelling in the end.—Necia Blundy, Marlborough Public Library, MA
In 2083, impoverished orphan Shama is selected to attend the elite Chronos Academy. With her pet robot/bird as her only friend, Shama struggles to fit in. She eventually learns she must travel back to 2001 to prevent a girl's death in the Twin Towers. The narrative is slow to start and, with the exception of the narrator, the characterization is flat.
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