London Calling [Hardcover]

I picked this up because I loved Tangerine, by the same author. I decided my boys are all going to read Tangerine when they get a bit older because it is a great story and I loved how the main character takes on the bully in his life.

This book will also be on my list of reads for them, but for a different reason. It's also a great story and once again there is an obnoxious bully who needs someone to stand up to him. But there is also a message. I know, kids don't like message books, but it's really just a small part of the story and it's a good message. I think I read a similar sentiment in a Margaret Frazer book, where she wrote something like, "it will be asked how you spent the time you have been given." Here, it's "what did you do to help?" Either way it applies to the hero here. At the beginning he is spending his summer sleeping - he doesn't do anything. No interests, hobbies, nothing. He is very unenthused about life.

And then Martin's grandmother leaves him an old radio that transports him to 1940s London. The story gets sort of Sixth Sense-y, but it is a very satisfying story.

Martin Conway can't stand the snobbery at All Souls Preparatory School, not to mention the uniforms and the tradition. He'd love to just get away from it all and disappear into the anonymity of public school. But he can't, because his mother works as a secretary at the school so that Martin can have the chance one day to join the diplomatic corps to which his grandfather belonged.

Martin doesn't want a better life in the future; he just wants a better one right now, away from the nasty but popular Hank Lowery and his friends --- tormentors of the weak and helpless. They attack Martin and his friends after the latter question the war hero status of Hank's grandfather. Although Hank and company strike the first blow, somehow it's Martin's friend who gets expelled (for fighting back in defense). But that's the way it works at All Souls: money and power win every time.

In addition to the dismal atmosphere at school, Martin has plenty going on at home: his mother won't listen to him, his father, an admitted alcoholic, doesn't even live with them anymore, and his beloved grandmother has just died. Worst of all, perhaps, are the dreams he's been having: dreams that place him back in World War II and that leave him with intimate knowledge of things that happened 60 years ago --- things he couldn't possibly be aware of unless he was actually there. During these bizarre happenings, he meets a young boy named Jimmy Harker who asks him a seemingly simple question: Will you help?

Edward Bloor is an author who can always be counted on for writing something different --- and LONDON CALLING is certainly that. Part time travel, part ghost story, part problem novel, LONDON CALLING does a great job of linking these different elements into one coherent and compelling whole. As with his previous books, Bloor's strength is with his characters: Martin, of course, who comes across as determined and curious even in the face of extraordinary experiences, but also his intriguing sister Margaret and straightforward best friend Pinak. Martin's unfolding relationship with his father also drives the book, as he learns to see his father as a much more complex person than he originally thought.

Readers who enjoy historical fiction with a twist will be intrigued by LONDON CALLING --- as will anyone who likes books that challenge the status quo, especially through unexpected and unusual elements. This is an effective and compelling novel that will make readers think not only about the way we view our past but also about the way we understand our present.

--- Reviewed by Paula Jolin

"London Calling" is one of the most emotionally wrenching YA books I've had the pleasure to read in the past year. The character of Martin (JMartinC is his IM username) is as real as any kid I've run into recently. Yes, there is time-travel of a sort. Martin is somehow transported to the past through the agency of an ancient Philco Radio, and Jimmy, his raggedy companion in World War II London, is a masterful, albeit tragic, character.

Martin, of course, would rather this whole thing be a dream, because the alternative seems to be insanity. But when his "dreams" start giving him historically accurate answers about things he's never heard of, then all bets are off.

"What did YOU do to help?" -- The question that reverberates through this marvelous is answered for Jimmy and Martin. Could it be answered for the reader?

Sorry for what seems like an excess of superlatives, but this is a superlative book.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 14 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars