cover image Frozen in Time

Frozen in Time

Ali Sparkes, Egmont USA, $15.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-60684-077-1

In British novelist Sparkes's lively science-fiction mystery, Ben and Rachel are two bored English tweens spending the summer with their uncle. Exploring the estate one day during a rare lull in the rain, they discover a hidden shelter that contains Freddy and Polly, two children (and relatives of Ben and Rachel) who were cryogenically frozen by their father back in 1956. Although there's plenty of the traditional culture shock—both in Freddy and Polly's reactions to contemporary music and fashion and in their attempts to impose '50s era morality on their contemporaries—the real meat of the book lies with the cryonics. As Ben and Rachel deal with adjusting to life in a 21st-century school, long-lost secrets about the British government and Freddy and Polly's past are revealed, leading to a tense, action-filled climax. Sparkes occasionally overestimates the innocence of the '50s ("They had introduced two pure 1950s children to junk food"), and relies on the tired cliché of the fat bully—but in the end, she delivers an exciting and witty story that smartly incorporates 20th century history. Ages 8–12. (May)