Westfallen

Starred review from July 15, 2024
Twelve-year-olds from Millerton, N.J., communicate across time in this high-stakes series launch from siblings Ann (The Whole Thing Together) and Ben Brashares (The Great Whipplethorp Bug Collection). In 2023, former best friends Henry, Frances, and Lukas are burying their deceased shared gerbil when they unearth a rusting radio. Henry moves it to his family’s tool shed, where it inexplicably powers up and starts transmitting on it’s own. Meanwhile, in 1944, Alice relocates her older brother’s amateur radio from the trash to the gardening shed. Alice, her neighbor Artie, and her best friend Lawrence are examining the device when it turns on, connecting both tween trios. It’s not long before they realize they’re broadcasting from the same location, decades apart. When Henry and
company provide information that helps Alice and her pals prevent a fire, they feel like superheroes until they discover their good deed’s unforeseen consequences. The Brashares vividly illustrate the perils of forgetting lessons of the past in this historical science-fiction thriller, narrated in alternating sections by Henry and Alice. The racially and ethnically diverse cast’s crackling chemistry brings humor and heart to the pulse-pounding plot, which utilizes a timeworn premise to devastating effect. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jodi Reamer,
Writers House.

July 15, 2024
Six New Jersey 12-year-olds separated by decades race to ensure the "good guys" win World War II in this middle-grade work by the author ofThe Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and her brother, a children's author and journalist. It all starts with a ham radio that Alice, Lawrence, and Artie fool around with in 1944 and Henry, Frances, and Lukas find in 2023. It's late April, and the 1944 kids worry about loved ones in combat, while the 2023 kids study the war in school. When, impossibly, the radio allows the kids to communicate across time, it doesn't take long before they share information that changes history. Can the two sets of kids work across a 79-year divide to prevent the U.S.A. from becoming the Nazi-controlled dystopia of Westfallen? This propulsive thriller includes well-paced cuts between times that keep the pages turning. Like most people in their small New Jersey town, Alice, Artie, and Frances are white. In 1944, Lawrence, who's Black, endures bigotry; in the U.S.A. of 2023, Henry's biracial (white and Black) identity and Lukas' Jewish one are unremarkable, but in Westfallen, Henry's a "mischling" doing "work-learning," and Lukas is a menial laborer. Alice's and Henry's dual first-person narration zooms in on the adventure, but readers who pull back may find themselves deeply uneasy with the summary consideration paid to the real-life fates of European Jews and disabled people. The cliffhanger ending will have them hoping for more thoughtful treatment in sequels to come. Compulsively readable; morally uncomfortable.(Science fiction/thriller. 10-13)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2024
Grades 5-7 When New Jersey middle-schoolers Henry, Lukas, and Frances unearth an old homemade crystal radio, it connects them with a similar trio in 1944. Lukas makes a chance comment about why the Normandy Invasion succeeded in surprising the Germans--and suddenly he and his friends are living in Westfallen, a cowed police state that was the U.S. until it was conquered by Nazis. Jewish Lukas is hustled off to a work gang, but Henry and Frances hit the library and discover that the Nazis learned of the Allies' strategy back in 1944 thanks to a spy's telegram sent from their own town. Can the twenty-first-century contingent rescue their friend while the twentieth-century one finds a way to intercept the message in, as it were, time? Switching between eras amid light washes of banter and period detail, talk of the "butterfly effect," and examples of how changes in the past lead to consequences in the future set up a close that, disappointingly, only hints at a twist rather than actually revealing one. Readers will likely be left more bewildered than tantalized.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2024
When contemporary twelve-year-olds Henry, Frances, and Lukas dig up an old radio in one of their backyards, they find themselves speaking with children of the same age, and at the same location, in 1944. Alice, Lawrence, and Artie do not know the outcome of World War II, and they certainly do not understand the consequences of interfering with a timeline. Soon enough, small, seemingly heroic actions, such as stopping a fire at a beloved candy shop, start to mess with history in very serious ways. The U.S., in 2023, changes overnight to a nightmarish new reality in which the Nazis won WWII and now control the country, renamed Westfallen. The kids from the present and the past must team up to undo the colossal damage that has been done, stopping a spy and thus righting their mistakes, before Westfallen becomes a permanent reality. But that escapade is only the beginning of an adventure that will challenge readers to consider the past, the future, and the nature of history itself. Fascinating time-travel theories collide with historical fiction to set the scene for a story that is suspenseful, complex, and at times humorous. Rapid shifts between past and present might be confusing at first, but as the plot picks up, the details coalesce to form one seamless narrative. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers eager for the next installment in a projected series. Sarah Berman

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from October 18, 2024

Gr 3-7-Renowned "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" author Brashares teams up with her brother to craft an exciting historical novel with time travel, wormholes, and a dystopian alternate reality. Westfallen: a modern-day place that used to be known as the United States before the Nazis won the war. It's 2023, and three middle schoolers have just discovered they have the power to meddle with time. They stop something sad that happened 79 years ago to three new friends whom they've just met through an old scratchy radio signal and a magical shed. Things are better, right? What about stopping something really monumental, like World War II? What's the downside of making the world a better place? The kids from 1944-Alice, Lawrence, and Artie-and the kids from 2023-Henry, Frances, and Lukas-come face to face with unexpected consequences when they disrupt the fabric of time. Young readers will be caught up in the chilling events as seen through the eyes of the six friends, but so will adult readers. Teachers should get ready for book two and start thinking about book discussions that promise lots of conversations (and arguments!) when students get their hands on this page-turner with a cliff-hanger ending. VERDICT A historical fiction adventure, highly recommended.-Cheryl Blevens

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2024
When contemporary twelve-year-olds Henry, Frances, and Lukas dig up an old radio in one of their backyards, they find themselves speaking with children of the same age, and at the same location, in 1944. Alice, Lawrence, and Artie do not know the outcome of World War II, and they certainly do not understand the consequences of interfering with a timeline. Soon enough, small, seemingly heroic actions, such as stopping a fire at a beloved candy shop, start to mess with history in very serious ways. The U.S., in 2023, changes overnight to a nightmarish new reality in which the Nazis won WWII and now control the country, renamed Westfallen. The kids from the present and the past must team up to undo the colossal damage that has been done, stopping a spy and thus righting their mistakes, before Westfallen becomes a permanent reality. But that escapade is only the beginning of an adventure that will challenge readers to consider the past, the future, and the nature of history itself. Fascinating time-travel theories collide with historical fiction to set the scene for a story that is suspenseful, complex, and at times humorous. Rapid shifts between past and present might be confusing at first, but as the plot picks up, the details coalesce to form one seamless narrative. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers eager for the next installment in a projected series.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)