Time Like a River

Facing her mother's mysterious illness and her own bat mitzvah, Margie studies an old diary and finds herself traveling back in time, where she makes friends with Chinese immigrants

Grade 5-7?Until her 13th birthday celebration, Margie Belzer's biggest worry is preparing for her upcoming Bat Mitzvah. Then her veterinarian mother begins displaying some alarming medical symptoms. Over the next few days, her condition deteriorates even more. It is while working on a history assignment that Margie and her friend Isabel discover a diary written by Lee Chau Wing, an early California immigrant and herbalist. In it, Mr. Lee documents the illness that eventually kills him. Since his symptoms so closely resemble her mother's, and modern doctors have no answers, Margie travels back in time to convince Lee's son to perform an autopsy on his father. Once she understands the nature of Lee's sickness, she is able to relate it to her mother's condition, and doctors are able to treat Mrs. Belzer. This tries to be a time-travel novel, a mystery, and the story of a brave teenager facing a life-threatening situation, and the subsequent pace robs all three of their immediacy and emotional impact. Margie's journey through time is too easily accepted by the people she encounters, and she rather easily overrides the Lee family's concerns about an autopsy. There are brief nods to the mysteries of time and the concept of life in balance, but no discussion that asks, or answers, the questions that such mysteries pose. Readers who are accustomed to lightweight commercial fare will find this an acceptable read and perhaps a bridge to stories with more depth, such as Jean Marzollo's Halfway Down Paddy Lane (Dial, 1981; o.p.) for time travel or Cynthia Rylant's Kindness (Orchard, 1988; o.p.) for a life-altering crisis.?Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.