The Yearbook

September 15, 2015
A troubled girl in foster care believes she has finally found where she belongs when she travels in time back to 1923. Lola's mother has been mentally ill since Lola was a young child. She now lives in a group home in her small Midwestern town but acts out in rebellion. Assigned to clean out an old room in her school's library, she finds a high school yearbook and becomes fascinated with it, suddenly finding herself back in the 1920s at a school dance. She meets Peter but inadvertently travels back to the present. She's desperate to return to 1923, where she feels she belongs, and to Peter, who she believes is the boy for her. At last she manages to return and stay in the 1920s for several months, making friends, especially with the daring flapper Whoopsie. Her unfamiliarity with the history and science of the era leads to some stumbles, and she misses modern conveniences. Lola convinces Peter that she has traveled through time, and the two decide to eliminate the possibility that she might again return to the present, with results that add real suspense to the story. Masciola keeps pages turning by focusing on Lola's emotional rebellion while providing entertaining details about life in 1923. The time travel feels arbitrary, but it works, and an ending twist neatly resolves the story. An entertaining, undemanding time-travel romance. (Science fiction. 12-18)

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October 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Lola lives in a group home and battles with the mental illness and poor choices that run in her family. While cleaning a fire-damaged library room, Lola finds a portal that transports her to the 1920s, where she hangs with a cool crowd and falls in love. Masciola clearly defines the eras that Lola inhabits, with unobtrusive references to all aspects of culture. Readers may be confused as to whether the protagonist is truly time traveling or these experiences are the result of her rocky mental state, as Lola hallucinates and acts erratically during a meeting with her present-day psychiatrist. Yet two women in the present, her social worker and a friend from the past, see evidence of Lola's time travel. A yearbook that Lola finds while cleaning the library room provides tangible evidence of her time travel, too. Lola is likable and real in her interactions with a thrift store manager, her social worker and therapists, and Whoopsie, a 1920s friend. Other characters, such as Lola's current roommate and her 1920s benefactors are one-dimensional. Mental illness and its effects are honestly and sensitively portrayed, but the time-travel element muddles the story. Readers will likely overlook the flaws, however, because they care about Lola and want to discover her fate. VERDICT An additional purchase where there is a high demand for romance-infused science fiction.-Hilary Writt, Sullivan University, Lexington, KY

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