FINISHED:

Pearce, Philippa. (1958). Tom's midnight garden. New York: HarperCollins.

[By today's standards, I think that this one feels dated. That's not to say that it isn't good, I enjoyed it, but it felt a bit slow and not super exciting. Tom has to move into his aunt and uncle's flat for a time while his brother gets over having the measles. One night while in bed, Tom hears the hall grandfather clock chime 13 times. He gets up and opens the back door to find an immense garden there and a girl named Hattie who seems to be the only one who can see or hear him. Over the course of a few weeks - Tom even tries to come up with reasons that he needs to stay with his aunt and uncle - Tom visits the garden every night. Interesting things going on here like Hattie and Tom both think the other is a ghost, Hattie gets older over the course of the visits and begins to move on from her relationship with Tom and meet other young people. It's an interesting examination of time-travel that could inspire many conversations - in one particularly thought-inspiring moment, Tom tells Hattie to put her ice skates under a floorboard in her bedroom (now his) in her time so that when he goes up to the room in his time he will have ice skates that he can then bring with him the next time he visits her. SO, they end up ice skating together wearing the exact same skates...]

STILL READING...:
Anderson, M.T. (2008). The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the nation: Volume II: The kingdom on the waves. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.

[Picked it back up. It's a beast, but I've got to finish it before Sunday, and it's SO worth the time.]

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