9/21/21
Parsifal Rides the Time Wave, by Nell Chenault, for Timeslip Tuesday
Parsifal is a Poddley, a magical creature who travels to world helping children in need. He's so good at the job he's part of the Poddley Emergency Squad, who take on the toughest cases. And when he arrives at a hospital to see a boy making no effort to get well again, he knows he'll have to be on top of his magical game. And so he un-invisibles himself, and starts to get the bottom of Colin's troubles.
It's a sad story. Colin chased a ball into the street, and didn't see the truck coming. His old collie, Lad, his best friend forever, found the strength to force his old bones to run, and knocked Colin mostly out of harms way. Colin ended up in the hospital, with no reason not to make a full recovery, but Lad was killed. And now Colin is sunk in a pit of self-blame and sadness, and refuses to eat or try to get better.
So Parsifal sets to work to rekindle Colin's interest in life. And what better way to do that than to time travel to medieval Scotland, to meet Robert the Bruce!
Parsifal, being magical, makes time travel easy--Colin arrives appropriately clad and speaking Gaelic. And he saves Robert the Bruce from a treacherous attack, with the help of Robert's own dog, Ban. And sadly, like Lad, Ban is killed saving his master. To thank Colin, Robert gives him as special gift--Ban's son, a lovable puppy.
The puppy can't travel through time, but when Colin gets home he finds his parents have gotten him a puppy just like little Ban Jr. And he is happy again.
It's a sweet and pleasant story despite the sadness of dog death. The time travel is fun and exciting, and although I worried that I might find the whole Poddley thing too twee to stomach, I was perfectly fine with it. Though it's an old book it's not particularly dated in feel, and I'd happily give it to an early chapter book reader who loves both dogs and all things medieval.
Thanks Sherry, at Semicolon, for reviewing the book and putting it on my radar! And thanks, fate, for leading me to a used bookstore in Maine where I found a cheap copy!
9/19/21
This week's middle grade sci fi/fantasy roundup (9/19/21)
*Da Vinci's Cat, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, at Sonderbooks
*Egg Marks The Spot: A Skunk and Badger Story by Amy Timberlake, illus. by Jon Klassen, at A Bookish Way of Life, Rosi Hollinbeck, and Twirling Book Princess
*The Namer of Spirits, by Todd Mitchell, at Alison Alexander
*Jessica Vitalis (The Wolf’s Curse), at The Bookwyrm's Den and the Middle Grade Ninja podcast
9/18/21
Attack of the Killer Komodos, by Summer Rachel Short
Maggie and her best friend, Nate, saved their town from mutant mushrooms, and saved Maggie's older brother, Ezra (and many others) from the zombification they caused (as told in The Mutant Mushroom Takeover-my review). Now the three kids (and their grandma) are in Yellowstone National Park, where Maggie's dad is a ranger. It's supposed to be a fun family vacation, but it's clear to Maggie that something is bothering her dad...
And then he goes off on ranger business, and her grandma goes off to buy supplies, and the kids are all alone when a major earthquake strikes. The way into town is cut off by a new geyser, but the walkie-talkie still works, and Dad lets them know where he is, and that he is injured. So instead of staying put like the are supposed, they set off to hike the four miles to get to him.
It is not your average walk in the park.
To Nate's fascinated delight (cryptozoology is his passion), the fauna of the park now includes strange and deadly creatures. Komodo dragons with stingers, snakes with wings, giant mosquitos, and more, make the four miles almost impossible. Where did they come from?
Ezra is preoccupied by caring for a strange mutant snake, and Nate's mind races with conspiracy theories and he's determined to document the bizarre creatures for his you-tube channel. Maggie is more practical; she anxious to find a factual answer to what's happening, and a chance discovery of a hidden lab supports her belief that a rouge scientist must be involved. But will they survive long enough to find out?
Their journey is full of peril upon peril, not just from the creatures, but from the ordinary hazards of being in cut off in a wilderness being shaken by earthquakes. The walkie-talkie no longer works, food and water run low, and they keep getting hurt....and the komodo dragon-things seem to be hunting them!
It's not quite to my own personal taste (I like survival stories, but prefer them meditative rather than tumultuous), but I can image it hitting the spot for many kids. Readers who like fast-paced action will love it just for that; readers who like fantastical creatures will love it for the menagerie presented here (especially Ezra's snake friend), and scientifically-minded kids will appreciate how much of it is actually based in real science (as explained in the end-notes).
9/16/21
A Touch of Ruckus, by Ash Van Otterloo
Tennie (short for Tennessee) is wearing herself out trying to be a Good Child, a child who can keep her mother's depression at bay, a child who can look after her little siblings, a child who doesn't make trouble. Her parents are in a rough spot financially and mentally, but her mom won't ask her own mother for help. Instead, they are pretending everything is ok. The plan is to drop Tennie's big brother off at grandmother's on their way to a new, smaller, home, but he doesn't want to stay out in the small wooded hillside town of Howler's Hollow. Tennie does, desperately, and without actually having to ask directly for what she wants, it happens, and she's the one left behind.
She loves her grandma, loves the woods, and there's even a new friend. Fox is friendly and is eager to include Tennie in their ghost hunting, But her grandma isn't as much of a safe haven as Tennie wants her to be--she's on the edge of growing broke, and has a rich new boy friend, who sets off all sorts of alarm bells immediately in the reader's mind. Tennie can't help but question how much Fox really wants to be friends, and the ghost hunting succeeds, and explodes into a terrifying haunting.
On top of this, Tennie is keeping a big secret from her new friend. Tennie has a magical gift, or possibly curse--when she touches something, she picks up the thoughts and emotions of its owner. It's been a horrible source of stress for her. Fox has a secret too--they are looking for one particular, very dear, ghost...and though they aren't actually keeping these secret from each other, both kids are shyly and sweetly wondering if they might be on track to being more than just friends....
But the ghosts get in the way of peaceful life, and in their terrifying, angry way, they are trying to help with their warnings that the forest is in danger. Plenty of spookiness, mystery solving, and more than a touch of ruckus ensues! And Tennie, to save this place she loves, and bring her family together, sheds the shell of Good Child and says what needs to be said, and does what needs to be done.
There's so much to like in this one! I especially liked how Tennie was able to move on from her impossible, self-appointed role in her family, and how her mother actually had recognized she had depression and was doing something about it--it is rare in MG fiction to have a parent with mental illness who actually doesn't need her kid to hold everything together. I also especially liked the very sweet relationship between Tennie and Fox, not just the hint of coming romance (although I'm glad to have another addition to my list of LGBTQ relationships in MG speculative fiction) but the realistic portrayal of the squirmy tension of getting a true friendship started; both kids make missteps, but realize that being honest about what they were thinking fixes things.9/14/21
The Way to Impossible Island, by Sophie Kirtley
A few weeks ago, I read The Wild Way Home, by Sophie Kirtley, for Timeslip Tuesday, and enjoyed it very much. Happily, when I was over in Ireland book shopping, I bought her second time travel book too--The Way to Impossible Island (Bloomsbury, July 2021 in the UK), which I enjoyed even more! It is a continuation of the first story, though not a sequel--the point of view characters have changed.
The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Mothgirl and Dara, the younger siblings of the main characters from book 1. Both are Irish kids (10/11 year old) but she lives in the Neolithic period, and he in the modern. Both are stuck in tough places.
Mothgirl's older brother went of on a long journey and hasn't come back, and her father is getting old; with two little kids to feed as well, things are anxious. And now Vulture, the leader of a horrible neighboring clan, wants to buy Mothgirl from her father to be trained up to be his son's wife. When her father agrees to the deal, Mothgirl runs with her pet wolf into the night.
Dara was born with a serious heart condition, and this summer he's finally going have the Big Operation that he thinks will make everything normal. For instance, he'll row himself out to Lathrin Island, the focus of his dreams of independent adventuring, with no worrying, hovering parents. When the operation is postponed, he becomes so fed up with it all that he decides to go off and visit the island anyway, and heads down to the beach in the middle of the night.
And time slips open, and Mothgirl and her wolf are hiding in the boat shed when Dara opens the door.
Together they make the journey to the island, and almost drown in the wild and dangerous channel. Together on the island they find shelter, climb to safety, and share knowledge with each other. And then, no longer together, they return to their homes with greater confidence and surety, more ready for what the future might bring.
It is a lovely story. There are:
--entertaining and thought-provoking details of cross-temporal communication and misunderstanding
--exciting dangerous bits
--a horribly moving bit when the wolf is presumed to have drowned, and Mothgirl forces herself to say goodbye and free his spirit (I'll put in a spoiler here--the dear wolf friend has not drowned).
--magical bits, including stories tied to places and people
--and then finally the heartwarming-ness of both kids realizing that they don't need to worry about being "normal" and fitting in to customary ways of being in the world, and that being "big and strong" isn't necessary in order to succeed. In the end, they are more firmly their own unique (loveable) selves, but they've learned that the journey is better with other people helping and being helped.
--and even more finally that little kick of emotion at the end of a really good time travel book, when the characters are each in their own time again, never to meet again....
It's almost three hundred pages, but it took me only about an hour and a half to read it because it was So Good.
9/12/21
This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy links (9/12/21)
Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel
- WINNER: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
- The Scapegracers, Hannah Abigail Clarke (Erewhon)
- Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
- A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
- The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira, Lou Diamond Phillips (Aethon)
- A Peculiar Peril, Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
9/9/21
The Hideaway, by Pam Smy, with giveaway!
If fall puts you in the mood for haunting stories of old graveyards and ghosts, with perhaps the power of love to transcend death if only for a snatch of time, do try The Hideaway, by Pam Smy! You'll be rewarded not just with atmospheric spookiness, but with a chance to weep in public (or now that you have been warned, in private) over a sharply drawn portrait of a more ordinary sadness--this is also a story of domestic abuse. It's told in two points of view, that of a boy, Billy, on the run from a home made toxic by his mother's abusive boyfriend, Jeff, and Billy's mother, searching for him with the help of neighbors and the authorities.
Billy can no longer stand being helpless in the same house as Jeff any longer. To the familiar soundtrack of invective being spewed at his mother, with the threat of violence always present, Billy gathers together clothes and provisions (and all the sharp kitchen knives) and leaves. Following a route he's taken in his mind a thousand times, he heads through the autumn rain for the shelter he's found for himself--an abandoned military pill box in an old cemetery. Cold and wet, he curls himself up.
The next morning he finds he's not an alone; an old man is pottering around the grave stones. The man, recognizing Billy as the desperate runaway he is, strikes a deal with him--if Billy will help cleaning up the overgrown graves, the man will give him a few days grace before alerting the authorities.
Meanwhile, when his mother realizes Billy has missed school, and isn't quietly up alone in his room as usual, she takes action, regardless of the consequences. She finds help and support in the neighbors from whom she'd previously been isolated, and a search begins.
So does a chance for Billy's mum to break free from her trap, and a chance for Billy to start healing from the trauma. And the story moves towards a heartbreaking ending when the purpose of the old man's graveyard cleaning becomes clear on All Souls day, and the dead are reunited with each other, and with the living (this is the part where I cried).
The story wraps up tidily with Jeff's arrest, and the old man's story is tied into that of Billy's family, so there's considerable hope that things will go better now (although one worries of course that Jeff, out of prison, will come back with murder in his heart...).
But in any event, slightly too tidy ending aside, it is an emotional journey of a book that I loved! So many feels. It's being marketed as middle grade, for kids 10-13 ish (Billy's age), and though I wouldn't give it to a kid any younger than that, I can easily imagine older readers clicking with it.
The Hideaway is illustrated by the author throughout with black and white drawings, with double-page spreads at the climax of the story. Pam Smy is a whiz with tonal and texture. The images are melancholy, spooky, sharp with anxiety, fading into more peaceful mist.
Pam Smy studied Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, where she now lectures part-time. Pam has illustrated books by Conan Doyle, Julia Donaldson, and Kathy Henderson, among others; visit her instagram account for lots eerie goodness! Her first novel, Thornhill, was a critical and commercial success, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the UKLA Book Awards, the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018, and winning the 2018 British Book Design & Production Award for Graphic Novels. She lives in Cambridge, UK.
US/UK, Giveaway ends 9/19 at 11:59pm ET
9/7/21
Legend of the Storm Sneezer, by Kristiana Sfirlea, for Timeslip Tuesday
9/5/21
This week's round-up of middle grade sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (9/5/21)
The Last Fallen Star (Gifted Clans, Book 1) by Graci Kim, at Rapunzel Reads
Emma Mylrea (Curse of the Dearmad) at Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books
8/31/21
The Wild Way Home, by Sophie Kirtley, for Timeslip Tuesday
Charlie regularly adventures in the scrappy bit of woods near home; it's a far cry from the ancient forests of Ireland, but its landmarks are a huge part of their emotional geography. When Charlie's much anticipated little brother is born with a heart problem, and everything becomes too unknown and scary to cope with, Charlie runs into the woods....
But though the major landmarks are still there, the woods are not the same familiar place.
Then Charlie sees an injured boy face down in the stream, and sets to work rescuing him But the boy is confused, and can't remember what's happened to him. Communication is difficult; the boy, called Harby, speaks a strangely broken English, and can't understand much of what Charlie is saying. And so Charlie realizes that time has slipped backwards--these are the woods of early Neolithic Ireland, and Harby is a Stone Age boy.
As his memories begin to come back to him, Harby manages to communicate his desperation to find and save his little sister, and Charlie's thoughts circle around similar anxieties for the little baby in the hospital at home. The two kids work together to stay alive (there are wolves in the woods, and food must be worked for), and at last Harby is reunited with his sister and father, and Charlie finds the way back home, with a sturdier mindset about the little brother waiting there.
It is a vivid picture of prehistoric life, the friendship and trust that grows between the kids is convincing, and the mechanism of time travel (a deer tooth Charlie has picked up, which turns out to be Harby's most meaningful talisman) is satisfactory. The mix of contemporary realism and the Stone Age past works really well, and there's enough adventure in the past to keep things moving nicely. What makes the book really sing though is how moving it is. I was so emotionally invested that I grew teary toward the end, and thought loving thoughts about my own family...(which I do regularly, but not always with such heightened emotion).
And now I look forward lots to reading the follow up story, The Way to Impossible Island, which features Harby's little sister and Charlie's little brother several years later....
(The story is told in the first person, and I read in someone else's review that Charlie is not identified specifically as boy or girl, which I hadn't noticed, and so I've avoided using pronouns here!)
8/29/21
This week's roundup of mg sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (8/29/21)
Welcome to this last MG sci fi/fantasy round up of summer! (I know it is the end of summer because I am a Keen Observer of signs of seasonal change--my neighbor's "summertime fun" display, which included a giant inflated hotdog, mercifully with bun, has been replaced by "back to school" featuring an enormous inflated crayon, and other scholastic sundries....)
As always, please let me know if I missed your post!
The Reviews
Airman, by Eoin Colfer, at Say What?Stowaway, by John David Anderson, at Maria's Melange, Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers, and alibrarymama
Sugar and Spite, by Gail D. Villanueva, at Your Tita KateToo Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff, at proseandkahn
The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, by Adrianna Cuevas, at The Book Search8/25/21
A Wilder Magic, by Juliana Brandt
Sybaline's family has lived in their Appalachian valley for generations. It's no ordinary valley, but one infused with magic that has become entwined with the family. They draw on the magic to help the course of nature along, working with it to grow and to heal. But their valley is doomed. The Tennessee Valley Authority is building a hydroelectric dam that will flood it, and they must move. This won't just destroy their homes and cemeteries and other beloved places, but will sunder them from the magic...
And so Sybaline says no.
Drawing on magic to work against the course of nature has consequences; serious ones, that ended up turning her grandfather into a tree, for instance. But Sybaline is blinded by desperation, and so instead of leaving, she goes down into the valley and raises a wall of water around it, creating a place where she and her cousin Nettle can live.
Things don't go as Sybaline expected. At first there is food and shelter, but as the water keeps rising, a design flaw emerges. Sybaline has magiced up not walls, but a dome...and when the water covers the dome, the two girls are plunged into the darkness one finds at the bottom of a deep lake. They are not in a sanctuary, but in a trap, and to make matters worse, three other kids got stuck inside too.
Stuck in the dark, with a limited food supply, water being pushed up by the outside pressure through the ground, and the cold becoming increasingly severe, it is clear that they must escape. But in order to break the magic, Sybaline and Nettle must draw on all the magic of the valley they can, even though there already signs that the magic is transforming them...
I am a huge fan of survival stories, and though "survival story" is perhaps not the main point of the book, it is still one that will appeal lots to fellow fans. All the elements I enjoy are here--the food foraging, the group figuring out how to work together, the growing anxiety and desperation...and the magical twist that has put the kids into this situation makes it especially interesting!
Thematically it is more than "survival story." It's a story of growing-up, of learning to be answerable to your powers, to face fears and uncertainties instead of running backwards to avoid them. It hurt to see Sybaline dealing with the lose of childhood security (made even more painful by her father being off in the war), but this hurt was soothed by her arrival at acceptance, and a reassurance that family was still family. It's also a story of living in balance with the natural world (complicated in this case by the natural world being magic).
I enjoyed Julian Brandt's debut, The Wolf of Cape Fen (my review), very much, and this one did not disappoint!
nb: A Wilder Magic is one of the many great elementary/middle grade specultative fiction eligible for the Cybils Awards this year; come join the Cybils team as an EMG Spec Fic panelist to read lots of them and try to pick which ones have the most kid appeal and literary merit combined in one package!
8/22/21
This week's round-up of middle grade fantasy and science fiction from around the blogs etc (8/22/21)
Escape From Aurora (Frostheart #2), by Jamie Littler, at Evelyn Reads
The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel, by Sheelah Chari, at Say What?
Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye, by Tania Del Rio, illustrated by Will Staehle, at Silver Button Books
Well Witched, by Frances Hardinge, at Pages Unbound
When Days Tilt (Time Catchers #1), Karen Ginnane, at The Book MuseThe Wild Before, by Piers Torday, at Sifa Elizabeth Reads
Willodeen, by Katherine Applegate, at Beagles and BooksStephanie Burgis (The Raven Heir) and Amy Wilson (Lightning Falls) in conversation with The Reader Teacher (on You Tube)
Christyne Morrell (Kingdom of Secrets), at Literary Rambles (with giveaway)8/18/21
Five reasons why you might want to apply to be a Cybils judge in elementary/middle grade speculative fiction!
The call for this years Cybils Awards panelists has gone out, and anyone who reviews or talks about kids and ya books on line (blog, you tube, Goodreads, etc.) is welcome to apply to be part of the fun and excitement!
The Cybils Awards includes many different categories of books (ranging from picture books to YA fiction), and each category has it's own set of panelists. The first round panelists narrow all the nominated books down to a shortlist of 5-7 books, and then a second group had to pick the final winner. Anyone in the world can nominate a book in each category; some categories end up with lots of books and some with fewer (elementary/middle grade speculative fiction is around 110-130, on the higher end).
I'm the category chair for elementary/middle grade speculative fiction (roughly books for 8-12 year olds), and if you are reading my blog, this might well be the group of books that you enjoy the most too! I am always so happy to welcome new folks into the judging, and so to encourage you who haven't done it before, I offer--
Five reasons why you might want to apply to be a Cybils judge in elementary/middle grade speculative fiction!
2. It makes fall a lot more fun when you are a first round panelist. I love the excitement of the nomination period, the fun of marking books read in the spreadsheet, the wild placing of library holds and the arrival of review copies (mostly digital these days, but some still physical). I love having a forum in which I can honestly share with no holding back what I really think about books; it is very companionable.
3. You will find new authors to love, and you will become extremely knowledgeable about the middle grade spec. fic. books of the past year.
4. You will make new friends and quite possibly be inspired to review more.
5. As the category organizer, assembling the panels is part of my job, so this reason why you should apply is somewhat selfish. I want lots and lots of people to apply so that I can have new participants along with reliable veterans, and so that the panels can have lots of different view points represented. I take up one of the seven available slots in the first round because I'm the Lead Reader, but that still leaves six, and five more for the second round....
If you still have doubts, let me reassure you that it is less work than you might think!
There will probably be around 120 books nominated in EMG Spec Fic. This might seem like a lot of books to read, but remember, you'll probably have read a fair number of them already (if you haven't, you must not like MG spec fic, so you wouldn't be applying). Also each book only Has to be read by 2 panelists, and since I plan to read all the books, that takes pressure off of others. And also if it is clear to you before finishing a book that you could not support it being shortlisted, you don't have to finish it but can still mark it as read.
Though the nominating period ends October 15, you can start reading just as soon as you get the invitation email from me in mid September, giving you three and half months for reading (the shortlists must be assembled by the end of December). On the other hand, if you are having a baby, starting a new job, planning on spending the month of December snowbound with no internet access, or moving house this fall, the second round might be a better fit for you!
Things that I look for when gathering panelists:
Obviously, I really want people who know and love EMG Spec Fic; this is the most important thing to demonstrate when you apply! (Do not include a link to a review in which you say "I don't really like middle grade fiction, but I liked this book" or some such, which really has happened a few times in the past). I want a mix of parents, educators, librarians, and authors. I want a range of viewpoints; I'd love diverse panelists. . And I want panelists who are able to think clearly and critically about what makes for a good mg spec fic book and who are willing to enjoy sharing their opinions.
So here's the link to the application page on the Cybils website. Please apply! (you get to put three categories you're interested in, ranked...you could put EMG spec fic for all three if you wanted. Nb--picture books are the most popular first pick; graphic novels and High School non-fiction always would welcome more applicants. EMG spec fic is somewhere in the middle....
If you are on the fence about applying, please feel free to email me at charlotteslibrary at gmail.com with any questions or concerns.
8/15/21
This week's round-up of mg sci fi and fantasy from around the blogs (8/15/21)
Mission Multiverse, by Rebecca Caprara, at Ms. Yingling Reads
Jessica Vitalis (The Wolf's Curse) at MG Book Village
- The Scapegracers, Hannah Abigail Clarke (Erewhon)
- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll)
- Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
- A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
- The Tinderbox: Soldier of Indira, Lou Diamond Phillips (Aethon)
- A Peculiar Peril, Jeff VanderMeer (Farrar, Straus, Giroux)
8/8/21
on vacation this week...
....bookshopping in Ireland, so no round-up! I'll try to do one for next week.
8/3/21
Yesterday Is History, by Kosoko Jackson, for Timeslip Tuesday
Andre has come through cancer, with a new liver received from a young man who died in a car accident. He's ready to charge back into his life of academic success, complicated by all the school he missed. But along with the liver, he got something he couldn't have predicted-- a trip to his childhood home back in the 1960s. There he meets Michael, a guy a little older, friendly, cute, and insightful as heck. Andre has no clue how this has happened, until the family of the liver donor reaches out.
Turns out that young man was a time traveler, from a family of time travelers. And now Andre is one too. Blake, the younger son, didn't inherit the gene, but his parents assign him to teach Andre the rules of time travelling. This is a heck of complicated situation for Blake, for a variety of understandable personal reasons, and it's further complicated when he finds himself falling for Andre..
But Andre has been going back to the past to meet Michael again, and they fall in love. And even though he could imagine easily falling for Blake, what he shares with Michael can't just be dismissed.
Andre wants to make everything ok for Blake (hurting in the present) and for Michael (hurting in the past), but that's impossible, even with time travel. And after lots of internal struggle and another brush with death, he sets out to live his best life in the present.
So time travel is a mechanism for the romance plot, and that's fine, but it's a bit disappointing that except for one hop back to the Titanic, which we don't even get to experience through Andre's point of view, there's just trips back to see Michael (and it was really frustrating that Andre doesn't get Michael to promise always to use a condom, though mercifully we find that Michael doesn't die of AIDS).
Andre grows up a lot because of his experience in the past though, realizing that instead of just drifting along with parental expectations (in this case, medical school), it's better to find your own passion. Believably, he doesn't in fact find his (except romantically), but it's a good message for teens regardless.
It was really nice to read about a likeable gay boy supported by his family finding love! So read it for that, not because you like time travel, which exists here primarily in the service of romantic entanglement (that being said, the time travel did a good job making the entanglement interesting!)