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Reviewed by:
  • Saving Lucas Biggs by Marisa de los Santos
  • Amy Atkinson
de los Santos, Marisa. Saving Lucas Biggs; by Marisa de los Santos and David Teague. Harper/HarperCollins, 2014. 279p ISBN 978-0-06-227462-5 $16.99 R Gr. 4-6.

Just like all the O’Malleys before her who had the family “quirk,” thirteen-year-old Margaret vows not to use her ability to time travel. Yet when corrupt, hardened judge Lucas Biggs sentences her father to death for a crime he didn’t commit, Margaret sees a chance to change the past—and Biggs’ heart—before it’s too late for her family. With help from her best friend Charlie and Charlie’s Grandpa Josh (who had been the judge’s friend in childhood), she moves between her hometown of Victory, Arizona and its 1938 counterpart, when town founder Victory Fuels Corporation facilitated the starvation and murder of striking miners and their families. The book takes on some weighty issues here, from workers’ rights to metaphysics, and handles them with grace and sensitivity. While concrete descriptions of Margaret’s unique inherited ability and the time travel process are understandably scant, the first-person narrative voices, alternating among Margaret, Grandpa Josh, and, later, Charlie, provide a sense of immediacy and conviction. The authors’ graceful use of language and fearless exploration of a more spiritual dimension simultaneously comfort and challenge readers, encouraging deep thoughts without proselytizing, and providing plenty of suspense besides. A restrained but resonant rumination on social justice, community, and trusting the light within each of us, this novel makes a good companion for armchair time travelers and budding philosophers alike.

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