Westfallen

by Ann Brashares, Ben Brashares Narrated by Carlotta Brentan, André Santana

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Three friends face three very different middle school social lives in an alternate history sure to get reader's brains churning.

From #1 New York Times bestselling Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants author Ann Brashares and her brother Ben Brashares comes an action-packed middle grade alternate history thriller that asks what it would be like to wake up in present-day America if Germany had won World War II.

Henry, Frances, and Lukas are neighbors, and they used to be best friends. But in middle school Frances got emo, Lukas went to private school, and Henry just felt left behind. When they come together again for the funeral of a pet gerbil, the three ex-friends make a mindblowing discovery: a radio, buried in Henry's backyard, that allows them to talk to another group of kids in the same town...in the same backyard...eighty years in the past. The kids in 1944 want to know about the future: Are there laser guns? Flying cars? Jetpacks, at least? Most of all, they want to know about the outcome of the world war their dad and brothers are fighting in. Though Henry is cautious-he's seen movies about what happens when you disrupt the fabric of time-soon the present-day kids are sending their new friends on a mission to rescue a doomed candy store. What harm could that do? But one change leads to another, and when the six friends alter history in the biggest way possible, it's up to them to change it back.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 07/15/2024

Twelve-year-olds from Millerton, N.J., communicate across time in this high-stakes series launch from siblings Ann (The Whole Thing Together) and Ben Brashares (The Great Whipplethorp Bug Collection). In 2023, former best friends Henry, Frances, and Lukas are burying their deceased shared gerbil when they unearth a rusting radio. Henry moves it to his family’s tool shed, where it inexplicably powers up and starts transmitting on it’s own. Meanwhile, in 1944, Alice relocates her older brother’s amateur radio from the trash to the gardening shed. Alice, her neighbor Artie, and her best friend Lawrence are examining the device when it turns on, connecting both tween trios. It’s not long before they realize they’re broadcasting from the same location, decades apart. When Henry and company provide information that helps Alice and her pals prevent a fire, they feel like superheroes until they discover their good deed’s unforeseen consequences. The Brashares vividly illustrate the perils of forgetting lessons of the past in this historical science-fiction thriller, narrated in alternating sections by Henry and Alice. The racially and ethnically diverse cast’s crackling chemistry brings humor and heart to the pulse-pounding plot, which utilizes a timeworn premise to devastating effect. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (Sept.)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191339146
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	09/17/2024
Series:	Westfallen
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years