A Circle of Time

by Marisa Montes

Overview

"I helped you. Now you help me."
As fourteen-year-old Allison Blair lies comatose in the hospital, she hears in her head the voice of Becky Lee Thompson, pleading for help and pulling Allison back in time to 1906--and into Becky's body. But why? Is it to prevent Becky's tragic death, or the death of Joshua, the boy who loves her? Allison must remain in the past--fortified by her own growing feeling for Joshua, and Becky's will--to make sense of the layers of mystery, blackmail, and mistaken identity so that history will be altered.
Becky's spirit struggles to keep Allison's body alive. Can Allison save Becky and Joshua and return to her own body before time runs out?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544003040
Publisher:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication date:	03/29/2012
Sold by:	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	391 KB
Age Range:	10 - 12 Years

About the Author

MARISA MONTES is the author of Something Wicked's in Those Woods. She lives in Walnut Creek, California.

MARISA MONTES is the author of Something Wicked's in Those Woods. She lives in Walnut Creek, California.

Editorial Reviews

After being struck by a car while riding her bike, fourteen-year-old Allison is forced back in time to 1906 to stop the death of a young couple, Becky and Joshua. Becky's spirit pulls the comatose Allison into her body so that Allison can change the events of the past. At first an unwilling participant, Allison begins to care for Joshua and runs a frantic race against time and the impending San Francisco earthquake. Allison also knows that Becky's spirit is weakening, but Allison must return to her own body or she will die. The mystery revolves around who killed Sadie, Becky's stepmother. In her first trip to the past, Allison finds Sadie's body in the woods. When the scenario begins to play itself out again, Allison and Joshua are able to stop the grief-crazed daughter of the local landowner from killing Sadie, an event that opens the door to Becky's real identity. Montes effectively transports a feisty modern-day teenager back in time to help solve a mystery supported by two strong Spanish female characters, the landowner's daughter and her friend Mada, who thwart the conventions of their day but stay within acceptable boundaries for early 1900s California. This time-travel mystery will be a welcome addition to middle or junior high school library collections. Those girls who love Cooney's time travel Cox

VOYA

A Circle of Time opens with a dramatic accident that simultaneously thrusts fourteen- year-old Alison Blair into a coma, and into the body of Becky Lee Thompson, a teenager living in California at the beginning of the twentieth century. Alison's mission—which she has no choice but to accept—is to save Becky from the disastrous fate that awaits her. Initially, Alison has little understanding of the source of Becky's danger. However, when Teresa Cardona Pomales, a daughter of a wealthy Spanish landowner, takes Alison under her wing, she begins to unravel the mystery, which lies within the complex history and relationships of the Pomales family. Joshua Winthrop, Becky's attractive and sensitive boyfriend, also helps Alison, and in so doing develops a bond that extends through time. Middle school readers who enjoy fantasy, mystery, and romance will especially appreciate this ambitious second novel. Although the plot is somewhat repetitive and predictable, the writing is strong and the ending creative. The exploration of issues such as life after death, and cultural change and diversity, makes this novel not only entertaining, but educational, with potential for readership across many different ages and grade levels. 2002, Harcourt, 261 pp.,
— Tom Philion

Gr 6-10-This time-travel, historical mystery begins as 14-year-old Allison Blair is struck by a car and almost killed. While she is grasping onto life in a coma, she is whisked away in time by Becky, who has come to 1996 from 1906 to gain Allison's help. The book flashes back and forth between the hospital, with Becky in Allison's body and about to undergo brain surgery, and 1906 on a California estate owned by a wealthy Spanish family. There, Allison meets Joshua, who was Becky Thompson's boyfriend before her untimely death. Once she convinces him of her situation, he becomes her ally and helps her change history. The focus shifts to Sadie Thompson and Don Carlos, the estate owner, and the mystery of what happened to his daughter's baby years earlier. While Allison's lessons to Joshua about feminist history detract a bit from the sense of urgency, this is still an enjoyable, compelling read. Much like Caroline B. Cooney's Both Sides of Time (Laurel-Leaf, 1997), it takes on a romantic spin, along with the old Wizard of Oz theme of Allison's just wanting to click her heels three times and be back in the comfort zone of home.-Nicole M. Marcuccilli, Glenview Public Library, IL Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

A tiresomely perfect heroine travels back in time in a melodramatic fantasy. When a car accident leaves 14-year-old Allison Blair in a coma, her spirit is sent back to 1906, to occupy the body of poor, downtrodden Becky Lee Thompson. While Becky stays in 1996, keeping Allison's body alive, Allison must somehow prevent a tragic death-but whose? Her abusive stepmother's? Joshua, Becky's boyfriend, with whom Allison is falling in love? The insane daughter of the neighboring wealthy Spanish family? Or Becky's own? And can she save them before her own body, in the future, dies during brain surgery? This might have been an entertaining thriller if Montes (Egg-napped!, 2001, etc.) hadn't stretched credulity until it snapped. Allison is brave, resourceful, clever, and (in Becky's body) beautiful; everybody loves her, as she inspires Joshua to feminism, heals the ailing matriarch with modern medical notions, softens the crusty patriarch, awes the local psychic herbalist, patches up a star-crossed romance, reveals a lost heir, and predicts the San Francisco earthquake. Aside from the latter geological deus ex machina, there is nothing in the setting to indicate turn-of-the-century California. The aristocratic Cardona Pomales family may sprinkle their speech with Spanish, but with their golden tresses and soap opera intrigues might as well be transplanted fairy-tale royalty, while spooky Magda plays the part of the witch in the woods and Joshua is the stereotypical shepherd-prince. For young teens looking for a good romantic cry. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews