Wildwing

In this enjoyable historical coming-of-age story, Addy is chafing in her life as the poor daughter of a single mother in a small English town in 1913. When another girl calls Addy's mother a slut, 15-year-old Addy gets into a fight that results in her mother pulling her out of school and forcing her into service tending to an elderly eccentric. But Addy soon discovers that her new employer has invented a time machine, and when her mother threatens her with full-time service, she hops into the machine and begins a new life as Lady Mathilda in medieval England. There she meets handsome Will, is catered to by a legion of servants, learns how to work with falcons, and grows up enough to know when it's time to go home. The fantasy premise of escaping into a new identity ("If I could, I'd shed the girl I am like a snake slides out of a ragged, outgrown skin," Addy thinks) should strongly appeal to teens, who will relate to Addy's frustration with the limits of her life. Ages 12–up. (Oct.)