THE TIME-JINX TWINS

In Saller’s middle-grade novel, when reunited twin sisters are accidentally sent into the past, they must learn to work together to get home.

Days before starting middle school, Ellie Gray’s life changes when her estranged twin sister’s birthday visit becomes permanent. Katherine Stover, who goes by Kat, grew up with the twins’ actor father while Ellie grew up with their scientist mother. Despite being identical genetically, Ellie and Kat are extremely different: Ellie is athletic and popular, Kat is bookish and introverted. Almost immediately, their personalities clash when Ellie drags Kat along on a first-day-of-school prank. Things come to a head when Kat discovers the not-yet-working time machine their mother has built. Believing it to be another of Ellie’s pranks, Kat accidentally activates the “gizmo,” propelling the twins back to 1970. Not knowing how to work the time machine, Ellie and Kat are stranded with no way back to 2020. To navigate the past, the twins have to learn to work together using Kat’s research and acting skills in tandem with Ellie’s parkour, aikido, and gymnastic abilities. Saller’s conceptualization of time travel is unconvoluted; while most time-travel stories require their protagonists to carefully avoid changing the future, that is not a concern here. (There is a brief mention of a “ripple effect” that could “result in something catastrophic happening in the future,” but for the most part they don’t worry about it.) While this requires some suspension of disbelief, it does make for a more enjoyable narrative focusing on the twins’ relationship, without the clutter of time-travel logistics that might alienate the young target audience. Saller includes a lot of references to Harry Potter, which may be a less-relevant reference than it was 10 years ago. The action is fun and the descriptions are engaging, especially of 1970s Chicago: “Several large, unframed theater posters were stuck with tape onto dingy and cracked plaster walls.”

An endearing and engaging middle-grade adventure.