Saving Lucas Biggs

Two children facing family crises created by the domineering Victory energy company team up to try to change history in this time-travel adventure. Great characters, and a story that focuses more on history and realistic steps to create change than magical abilities. Fantastic!

Advanced reader copy provided by edelweiss.

Saving Lucas Biggs by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague proves that hope and love are greater than time.

Margaret O'Malley's father is sentenced to death by Judge Briggs. Her father makes her promise that she won't time travel. You see, her family has the ability to see where time has holes and are able to go through these. They swear, however, to live in the here and now because "history resists." Margaret's best friend is Charlie and he will help her in any way he can. He brings her to his Uncle Josh. Uncle Josh knows that she can time travel and convinces her that this is the right course of action.

Margaret has to use the past and present to make everything right--to give it equilibrium.

Time resists but it allows some things to show more squeeze through to set things right. It doesn't take changing the past to change; it's changing one's heart through love. Making excuses or believing that if things could have been different do not work. There's always a chance things can change in the present if action in love is taken. This is a novel about being green and believing in the power of love. Great message and a lovely story. show less

I have no idea how far along I am. Listening to it much longer will depress me and give me nightmares. How awful can ppl be to one another? In a kid's book?! So far no comic relief either. Just brutal historical fiction from two eras.

And the math isn't adding up... how old is Judge Biggs anyway?
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Much further along. The grandfathers are as old as long-generation great-grandfathers and we're just supposed to accept that.

The idea of 'doing the arithmetic' is interesting. Since it's audio I can't check the details, but something about how a lot of little goods can outweigh a bad. Nice idea, but what to do when there's a lot of big bads? How to maintain hope and feel that life is worthwhile when things are so awful as portrayed in 1938 show more Victory and aspects of 2014 Victory, too?

This is a hard book. More like thriller or true crime than story for young teens. Not for me, really, I sure do hope it's nearly done now.
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Finally. I guess one of the main things is, this is a book that teaches the same way that historical fiction does, but with an 'exciting' gimmick that will attract readers who are tired of hf. Ah, ok. Still not my cup of tea and still not recommending, though. show less

..."...sure, the past matters - but the present? The present is here and here and here, a sky full of light, a path under your feet, your hair lifted by the wind... All you have to do is set fear aside and stretch out your hand." Sometimes the best way to change history is working towards it right here in the present.

Thirteen-year-old Margaret's life is turned upside down when her father is sentenced to death. A geologist and whistle-blower at a coal mine, he was convicted of starting a fire that killed a night-watchman. Margaret knows he's innocent, however, and is the victim of a corrupt judge. If only she could go back in time and change the judge's life, so he didn't turn out to be such a cruel and hateful man. But that would mean breaking the vow she made, not to use her family's secret power of time travel.

The story is interesting and kept me turning pages right to the end, although it deals with some pretty heavy topics for the target readers. Strife between mine workers and owners was a real issue (and may still be) but most middle-grade show more readers will have little understanding of the injustices perpetrated and the book doesn't give much historical context. In fact, the violence seems to come out of nowhere. The alternating points-of-view from Margaret to her best friend's grandfather (Josh) was weird and a little hard to adapt to, in spite of having the year listed at the top of each chapter. It got even more confusing when the POV started shifting to her best friend, Charlie. The writing is okay but not great - some awkwardly worded parts around some dialog - but I'm probably being overly picky and that will likely be missed by most readers. In spite of that, I actually thought the book was slightly better than "okay." I think comparisons to _When You Reach Me_ are stretching it, though: it's not as good. show less

I generally enjoy Marisa de los Santos but this just didn't do it for me. I thought the story was disjointed and a bit violent for the target age group. I didn't see any other reviews that spoke to that, so perhaps it was just the way I perceived it.

middlegrade fiction (innocent father gets death penalty so daughter decides to time travel in order to turn the judge back into a good guy). I got to p. 47 in this (ch.4) but didn't feel like continuing, though I do have respect for the author/illustrators (even if no cookie-eating dinosaurs ever show up--oh wait, that's Mark Teague I'm thinking of).