Shulman, Polly. The Wells Bequest. 253 pages. Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin), 2013. $16.99. Content: G. A companion novel to the charming The Grimm Legacy, which is well worth a read, but doesn’t need to be read first. The narrator is Leo, a self-deprecating, smart kid who feels out of place in a family of geniuses. His whole world changes when a miniature Leo appears on a time machine with a beautiful girl. His mini-me from the future tells him to read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. A science project leads him to the New York Circulating Materials Repository (a kind of library for things), where he meets a life-sized version of the beautiful girl. Her name is Jaya and she is the head page. In an attempt to get to know Jaya better, Leo begins a job as a page and soon learns that there are all sorts of magical and scientifically impossible items at the library—including a time machine. While the novel’s pacing is steady and plot imaginative, the book is a little quark-y. “Quark” is not a misspelling; it’s a scientific term that is used as a creative cuss word. There are a whole lot of scientific terms and science fiction literary references. The time travel is actually only a very small part of the book, which disappointed me as a reader. The “bad-guy’s” motivation seemed contrived and his overall character never convinced me. The two main characters, however, are positively delightful and make reading it worthwhile. MS, HS—Advisable. Samantha Hastings, MA, MLS.
No comments:
Post a Comment