The Backward Season
By Lauren Myracle
Hi! Have you ever been told that something’s impossible? Well, Ava has – countless times! She’s been told that magic isn’t real and she was told that time travel is impossible. But this is bigger than ever – Ava’s wishing day is coming up. It’s her one chance to make things that have happened in the past right. And her sisters don’t think it’s that big of a deal. They think that she should just make her wishes and move on. Her sisters just think of her as the baby sister and that she doesn’t have to take on the family problems because she’s not capable of fixing them. But Ava is determined to prove them wrong!
After getting some very helpful advice from Stanley (Natasha’s boyfriend) about wormholes, she goes and visits the bird lady because she knows that the bird lady knew mama. The bird lady eventually spills that she was the one to convince her mom, Klara, to make the wish about winning a contest instead of Emily, which has broken her family apart. So the bird lady tells her a secret so that Ava can go back in time and convince the bird lady in the past that she is actually being serious and not just making the whole story up.
Soon, Ava’s wishing day arrives. She knows what she has to do. For her first wish (the impossible wish), she wishes for City Park Lake, her town, to be a membrane between different winds. For her second wish (a wish she can make come true herself), she wishes to go underwater right there, right then, and travel back in time to the last day of the second month of her mom’s thirteenth year. And for her third wish (the deepest wish of her most secret heart), she wishes to return to this when once she’s done what she needs to do, and she wishes to come back to herself. I know that seems really complicated, but those are the wishes she made.
So, Ava jumped underwater and held her breath for almost 2 minutes. When she came back up, she saw her mom.
Will Ava succeed? Or will she fail and there never be an Ava, Natasha, or Dayra? As I always say, read the book to find out!
I recommend this book to readers who like adventure and mystery. And to people who have faith in the people who believe that they can do big things. One of my favorite things is that not the oldest sister, not the second oldest sister, but the youngest sister is the one who takes on the challenge, who decides to try to do what is needed even if it means there being no her in the end.
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor):
There were no real big scary parts in this book.
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor):
There was one girl falling in love with one boy, but that was it.
I give this book 5 wands.
I really loved it! It was so exciting to find out what happened during the whole story and to get to that suspense moment when you wonder, “Is Ava going to survive? Is she? Is she?” And you just got nervous and it made the story the story.
