One Chance
Title: One Chance
Author: Sarah Frank
Genre: Middle Grade Time Traveling
Mystery
Rating: Four Stars!
When Sandy’s parents mysteriously
disappear, she’s left to contend with life as an orphan. Initially, she stays
at a foster home with an uncaring provider, but she makes the best of it because her needs are met and she makes
plenty of friends at school. In fact, just before Sandy is scheduled to leave to
a new orphanage and school, she reconnects with Brian, an old friend from her
previous life. He soon reveals that he can travel through time using the
magical Stone of Discedo. He’s unsure of how or why he’s been chosen to use and
protect it, so he swears Sandy to secrecy and they part, once again, as
friends.
As Sandy settles in at the new
orphanage, Brian and his magical stone are never far from her mind, but she has
lots to learn about all of the other children who share a home with her now. Everyone,
thankfully, seems friendly, and just as Sandy begins to think that she can
truly fit in with the other orphans, she starts to receive mysterious notes
related to Brian and the stone. With the help of her newfound friends, Sandy
and Brian dive into an investigation to uncover the truth behind the cryptic
warnings, but when they can’t figure it out and people begin to get hurt, they
decide to take desperate measures by using the stone to change the past. Of
course, the stone comes with a very specific rule: if someone wants to alter
their past, they must first change the outcome of three tragic historical events,
which Sandy and her new gang of friends quickly discovers is much easier said
than done.
One
Chance is a story about love and loss and about the power of being able to
choose your own family. It’s both heartwarming and charming and is a perfect book
for young, enthusiastic readers. The author, a teenager herself, does a
wonderful job of capturing the essence of childhood, along with all of the
idiosyncratic actions and nuances of adolescent life. The storyline, which at times
felt a little overwhelming with too many characters and one too many subplots, is still cohesive, and once the kids began to time
travel, the imagery and attention to historical detail were both fun and refreshing
and became my favorite part of the story.
