The Silver Tree

The pouting Micki regretfully gets her wish--that she had never been born--when she visits a magical room of the toy museum and is plunged into a journey through time.

Grade 4-6-- This first novel by a promising new author will not disappoint those fascinated by time-travel stories. Micki, 11, is disagreeable and determined to spoil the day for her family when rain ruins their picnic plans. Her father takes them instead to a toy museum, where Micki runs off by herself, uttering a fateful phrase: ``I wish I had never been born.'' That wish launches the plot to its satisfying, full-circle conclusion. She discovers a dollhouse, and through the attic window can see and hear miniature, real people, who are expecting a visitor. The next morning Micki wakes up among the dollhouse inhabitants, now a full-size family living in a large Victorian house in 1891. Somewhat marred by a slightly stilted style in the early chapters, the story picks up momentum when the time travel begins and as Micki's struggles to adjust to the details of daily life 100 years ago are sharply delineated. Her growth from a petulant whiner to a young girl who can accept the consequences of her behavior is quite believable, and her intricate relationship with the past is well developed. A fine debut. --Connie C. Rockman, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT
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