No Ordinary Thing

Schmidt’s complex, tightly constructed middle grade debut explores time travel and fantasies about altering the past for the better. Ever since his parents—“international aid workers and avid travelers”—died in a plane crash when he was five, Adam Lee Tripp, who is biracial (Chinese and white), has lived over—and helped at—his Uncle Henry’s bakery on New York City’s Lower East Side. The book opens in 1999, when Adam, now 12, discovers a snow globe in the attic, containing “only a layer of confetti snow—nothing else,” that transports him back in time to New York City and a small town just north in 1922, 1935, and the 1960s. In both locations and multiple timelines, he becomes involved with characters whose lives turn out to interweave with each other and with three treasures that possess different magical powers: the snow globe, a chestnut music box, and a gold pendulum. The objects’ histories are revealed through the story of a young magician at the beginning of the 20th century, an arc that is interspersed with Henry’s travels through time and place. Told in a confident narrative voice, the novel adroitly traces the characters’ and objects’ journeys and connections, encouraging close reading and keen speculation as the suspense builds to a most satisfying conclusion. Ages 8–12. [em](Oct.) [/em]