A Time Traveler’s History of Tomorrow
Eighteen-year-old Genevieve Newhouse has two secrets from her family. She harbors an ambition to make her mark on the scientific community, not an easy thing to do as a young woman in 1934. Her second secret? She can turn herself invisible. The latter helps her to earn the prestigious Winchester Fellowship and an invitation to present her research on the stage at Chicago’s Century of Progress World’s Fair. The fact that her acceptance letter is addressed to “Mr. Newhouse” seems a minor detail.
Ash Hargreaves has also come to Chicago with a mission. Growing up in a doomsday cult, Ash had always anticipated the end of the world. When he learns from the cult’s prognosticating leader that the world will end at the Century of Progress, he races to Chicago to try to prevent it, using his own hidden skill—Ash can crank back time. But he doesn’t anticipate meeting Genevieve, trying to save her life, and accidentally hurtling both of them back forty years to the time of Chicago’s earlier World’s Fair, in 1893.
A Time Traveler’s History of Tomorrow is Kendall Kulper’s third young adult novel about the intrepid Newhouse sisters, and it is a satisfying addition. Genevieve is smart and spunky, exactly the kind of girl to have by your side when you’re stranded in time. Ash is well-meaning, but naïve—the reader will see his mistakes well before he does—but he provides a good foil for our heroine to shine. The fish-out-of-water scenes, as our hapless time travelers try to fit into the 1890s, are entertaining, but Kulper nonetheless had me rooting for their successful return home. A thoroughly enjoyable YA time travel story.
