Falcon and the Carousel of Time [Hardcover]

Grade 4-7 -Having dealt with dragons, wizards, and saints in previous series entries, the newly teenage Falcon has come to the conclusion that magic is immature and embarrassing. She's more interested in becoming popular in school and not remaining a nerd like odd Allie Cadwallader-Newton. But she soon changes her mind when she and Allie go to visit Falcon's beloved Great-Great-Aunt Emily. When the elderly woman becomes deathly ill, the girls must go back in time to 1903 with Emily (who is now firmly ensconced in the body of her 12-year-old self) and find a way to save her life. Joining up with a friendly witch, a vaudevillian saint, and a new gathering of dragons, they eventually make their way back to modern-day New York City where Emily must accept the inevitable. Where the prior books were about the problems that face the children of separated parents, this one focuses on the idea that growing up doesn't require leaving magic and wonder behind. Although Gray maintains the joyous whimsical feel of those novels, this one relies too heavily on the characters' charm and not enough on consistent plotting and a strong narrative. As a result, the author's handling of Aunt Emily's eventual death lacks an emotional punch. Purchase only where the previous volumes are popular.-Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gr. 4-7. Thirteen-year-old Falcon, a veteran of many magical encounters, including hatching a dragon's egg she found in New York's Central Park, has lately decided that she is too old for such nonsense as wizards and witches. But all intentions to drop magic from her life are swept away when her elderly aunt Emily suffers a heart attack and the only way to save her is for Falcon to "timespin" them both back to old New York, circa 1903. With the help of new friend Allie and good witch Blinda, Falcon tries to return to her own time, while saving Aunt Emily's life in the process. Readers will need to be familiar with Falcon's previous two adventures in order to fully grasp the story here, into which Gray somewhat haphazardly melds characters and plotlines from a companion fantasy, Timespinners (2003). While not an essential purchase on its own, this sweet, mildly amusing fantasy will serve Falcon's fans quite well. Jennifer Hubert
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Grade 4-7 -Having dealt with dragons, wizards, and saints in previous series entries, the newly teenage Falcon has come to the conclusion that magic is immature and embarrassing. She's more interested in becoming popular in school and not remaining a nerd like odd Allie Cadwallader-Newton. But she soon changes her mind when she and Allie go to visit Falcon's beloved Great-Great-Aunt Emily. When the elderly woman becomes deathly ill, the girls must go back in time to 1903 with Emily (who is now firmly ensconced in the body of her 12-year-old self) and find a way to save her life. Joining up with a friendly witch, a vaudevillian saint, and a new gathering of dragons, they eventually make their way back to modern-day New York City where Emily must accept the inevitable. Where the prior books were about the problems that face the children of separated parents, this one focuses on the idea that growing up doesn't require leaving magic and wonder behind. Although Gray maintains the joyous whimsical feel of those novels, this one relies too heavily on the characters' charm and not enough on consistent plotting and a strong narrative. As a result, the author's handling of Aunt Emily's eventual death lacks an emotional punch. Purchase only where the previous volumes are popular.-Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (School Library Journal )

Gr. 4-7. Thirteen-year-old Falcon, a veteran of many magical encounters, including hatching a dragon's egg she found in New York's Central Park, has lately decided that she is too old for such nonsense as wizards and witches. But all intentions to drop magic from her life are swept away when her elderly aunt Emily suffers a heart attack and the only way to save her is for Falcon to "timespin" them both back to old New York, circa 1903. With the help of new friend Allie and good witch Blinda, Falcon tries to return to her own time, while saving Aunt Emily's life in the process. Readers will need to be familiar with Falcon's previous two adventures in order to fully grasp the story here, into which Gray somewhat haphazardly melds characters and plotlines from a companion fantasy, Timespinners (2003). While not an essential purchase on its own, this sweet, mildly amusing fantasy will serve Falcon's fans quite well. Jennifer Hubert
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
  (Booklist )

Falcon is the name of the thirteen-year-old protagonist in this enchanting story of time travel and adventure. Falcon's prior experiences with dragons and magic were bittersweet. As a result, she now shuns her past. She claims that she is too old for magical silliness and she yearns to be ordinary like everyone else. Falcon's family, however, and even her friends, are far from ordinary. It takes an extraordinary experience to help Falcon accept and embrace her unusual gift. Falcon travels back in time in attempt to prevent her elderly Aunt Emily from dying. Back in 1903 New York City, Falcon and her friends encounter a variety of fascinating characters. Unfortunately, none of her new acquaintances are magical enough to keep an old woman eternally young. This is a moving coming-of-age story that many pre-teen readers will identify with. 2005, Houghton Mifflin, Ages 10 up. (Denise Daley - Children's Literature )

Falcon is thirteentoo old for magic, too old for dragons and saints, too old to think about the adventures from her past. All she wants is to be an ordinary girl. But Falcon has a family legacy that cannot be denied, and, when her beloved Aunt Emily suffers a heart attack, that legacy and the magic within it may be the only way to save Emilys life. Falcon finds herself in New York City circa 1903, accompanied by Aunt Emily (who has managed to reoccupy the body of her own twelve-year-old self) and Allie Cadwallader-Newton (who knows a bit about time travel, thanks to her own adventures). With the help of a few old friends, Falcon sets out to find the way home, but she soon discovers that the situation is not what it seems. And there will be impossible choices ahead. Once again, Luli Gray transports readers into a world both foreign and familiar, where dragons meet in Central Park and young girls find that they have the power to change their futures, as well as their pasts.

Luli Gray belongs to a family for whom, she says, "reading and writing are as necessary as breathing." Born in Argentina, and for years a resident of New York City, she now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Falcon and the Charles Street Witch is the sequel to her first novel, Falcons Egg which received rave reviews and was an ALA Notable Childrens Book for 1995 and a School Library Journal Best Book of 1996.