Sooo Tricky

The other night, Clara and I were reading in the family room. Clara was reading How You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead. She was clearly enjoying her book. (I was moderately enjoying mine, but I haven't finished it yet, so the review will have to wait. (Life is full of disappointments, I know.)) When she finished, she walked over to me, stuck the book in front of my face and said, "You have to read this."
I said, "But, I am reading my book."
"No, you have to read this. It's sooo tricky."
"Hmmm."
She threw the book in my lap. "It's short, you can read it in a night. You have to read it."
She was right--it was short--200 pages, big kid-book style font.
So, I read it.
Clara wanted to tell me the end before I finished it. She was really excited about the book. It was, you see, sooo tricky. Make that SOOOOOOO TRICKY!

My review: It was a pretty good kid's book. It just won the Newbury, which is how Clara heard about it. Well, actually, she called me up at work and asked me to get the book from the Mount Holyoke library and she was sure they would have it because it just won the Nobel Prize. I told her it couldn't have just won the Nobel Prize because they give out the prize in October. She patiently explained that in that case, it must have won it in October. I told her it didn't win in October because last October the Nobel Prize in Literature was given to some woman who doesn't write in English. She was a bit troubled by that news. But, when I mentioned that it must have won some award for children's literature, she brightened back up.

Anyway, it may well have deserved its award. (I haven't read the other contestants, so I really don't have any basis for judging.)

The tricky, make that the SOOOO TRICKY, part was a basic time-travel story which has a character coming back into his own time line to change the outcome of his life. It has the usual array of continuity problems which such stories inherently have. It was well-written and charming--though I think most of my enjoyment from the book was really just knowing that my daughter liked it so much.

I don't think I would ever travel back into my own past to alter the outcome of my life. I am far too risk averse. Though, come to think of it, maybe I would overcome my risk aversion if something really terrible happened in my life--I suppose if the event was bad enough, there would be no downside risk, but, then again, things can always get worse, so perhaps there is no such thing as an event for which altering it presents no downside risk. I'll have to think about that.