The Longest Night of Charlie Moon, by Christopher Edge, for Timeslip Tuesday

 The Longest Night of Charlie Moon, by Christopher Edge, is a surreal little gem of a middle grade timeslip story that enticed me, confused the heck out of me (not in a bad way though), and then made me cry at the end.  

The enticing part was the forest, where Charlie's friend Dizzy led her one day to see the strange patterns of sticks he'd seen there.  Charlie has recently moved from London, and so the woods are a new thing, and Dizzy, who has a limp leftover from polio (the first clue to the time period), and who is, along with new kid Charlie, on the sidelines of the games played by the other kids, seems to be a good guide.   

But the class bully, Johnny, follows them there to scare them by pretending to be Old Chrony, the wild man rumored to live there.  Scare them Johnny does, but then when the kids realize they are lost, the fear of the dark woods grows more and more palpable.  There seems to be no way out, and though the three kids start to work together as a team, they can't figure out how to get home.

And thing grow more scary still, and more confusing.  Reality shifts, and twists, and the dangerous visions that rise up in the night might or might not be real.  And on top of that, Old Chrony turns out to be real...and very powerful indeed.

At which point the reader gets confirmation that time has been slipping, and that for kids in England in 1933, the future isn't going to be a safe and comforting place.  Which leads to me crying at the end.* 

It also lead to me forgiving the story for ever confusing me.  It all makes sense in retrospect, and I want my own copy now so I can reread it in a year or too. It's not a book for readers who want things explained, or for there to be Reasons and all the backstory to be spelled out.  But it is a book for young (or not so young) readers who want to journey into a terrifying wood beyond the boundaries of what is real, where time slips, and the only way out is through.

personal note--the reader doesn't find out for a while that Charlie is a girl, which I think was a bit of a distraction; it felt a little like a trick trying to be clever, and it throws one out of the story to have a gender switch in the middle of things.  

further note on Charlie--she's a good character for girls who like to code and decipher things to read about!

final note on Charlie--I always hated that nickname for Charlotte, so if you ever meet me in real life, please don't use it!

note on Johnny--though he's a bully, he's not a terrible one, and it's believable that he's able to work with the other kids as things progress.  

note on the time travel side of things--this is one in which time slips, and the future is glossed over the present; there's no actual travel to different times.

* the thing that made me cry is a spoiler! turn back now!

I wasn't expecting Dunkirk, and Dunkirk makes me sob every single darn time.