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The Golden Hour by Maiya Williams
Sent out of town by their distracted father after their mother's death, Rowan and Nina Popplewell sense at once that Owatanauk, Me., where they have two great-aunts, is the home of many, many secrets. Why, for instance, do the antiques in their great-aunts' curio shop look new, from the teapots to the original Beethoven sheet music? Why do the townspeople look conspiratorial at the mention of an abandoned resort hotel? And what is the ''golden hour'' they keep talking about? Rowan, Nina and two friends, Xavier and Xanthe, quickly discover that inside the old hotel is a time machine, called an alleviator. What it alleviates, they are told, is curiosity. It works only twice a day, at sunrise (the silver hour) and sunset (the golden hour).
Deeply distraught about the death of her mother, Nina disappears one morning. From what they know of her interests, the other children deduce that she has time-traveled to the French Revolution by mistake. So they use the alleviator to go to Paris in 1789.
Maiya Williams, who has written for television for many years, is a talented visual storyteller. The descriptions in her first novel are vivid (and true to the brutality of revolutionary France), her characters real and her settings palpable. ''The Golden Hour'' deftly combines fantasy and historical fiction as it explores a boy's coming to grips with grief, fear, prejudices, teenage anxieties and his sense of self. The story twists and turns from the back alleys to the high society of revolutionary Paris and eventually back to 21st-century America. It's a trip well worth the time. Doug Ward
I do not know where to begin describing this thoroughly fun and enjoyable fantasy. Maiya Williams has created an original story in The Golden Hour while staying true to teen's and children's fantasy roots.
A year after their mother's death, Rowan Popplewell and his younger sister Nina are sent to spend the summer with two strange aunts in the backward town of Owatannauk, Maine. Neither sibling is pleased with the destination but things become bearable when they meet twins Xanthe and Xavier. The four children decide to have a summer adventure and visit a run-down hotel that is off-limits. From the outside the hotel is strange enough, with numerous maze-like courtyards and a variety of architectural styles. Inside the hotel, however, is the strangest invention the children have ever seen - an 'alleviator' (an elevator that travels through time)! Nina heads back in time. Rowan and the twins try to find her, only to end up in France at the start of the revolution.
The sense of adventure and magic in The Golden Hour has the feel of a classic turn-of-the-previous-century fantasy - Rowan and his friends discover a secret magic that can be used to fulfill their adventurous wishes. However, Williams' style is geared more to readers from the turn-of-this-century. If E. Nesbit's characters had stumbled on the alleviators, they would have spent the entire novel traveling to different eras and scraping out of comical jams. While Williams could have taken this lighthearted approach, she chose to fully develop her characters and plot through one trip in the alleviators. In this journey, Rowan, like all current heroes, struggles with personal issues relevant to teens while learning about himself through his adventures.
Another advantage of limiting the story to one trip is that Williams was able to create a thorough feel for the time period. The late eighteenth century France that Rowan and his friends visit is not the dreary revolutionary France read about in textbooks. Williams does show peasants (angry over the bread shortage) storming the Bastille, but she also shows more. One of my favorite passages was one in which Rowan overhears two fops arguing over who gets to help King Louis XVI put on his dressing gown. This passage captures the flavor of the time period with a reality that is never discussed in standard middle school or high school history books. This attention to detail makes the book stand out among other fantasy novels.
Maiya Williams has made a mark with her debut novel, The Golden Hour. Fantasy fans will easily get caught up in her imaginative story, one that will be delighting readers for many years to come.
Rowan and Nina Popplewell's father sends them to spend the summer with their recently deceased mother's eccentric aunts in Maine. They meet twins Xanthe and Xavier and unlock the secrets to abandoned Owatannauk resort; it becomes a time-travel portal only in the "golden hour," "the short period of time between day and night." When Nina flees her grief-filled life, the other three follow her to Paris during the French Revolution. This novel is contemporary fiction, combined with fantasy and historical adventure. The observations Rowan makes add intelligent fun in his "Top Ten Reasons My Life Stinks," which form a loose frame for the plot. Getting lost in the machinations of French intrigue in 1789 makes for rollicking, energetic action and suspense, and the adolescent characters are believable and likeable-a good choice for readers who like a challenge. A sequel is planned by the author, a writer and producer for Rugrats and Mad TV.
In The Golden Hour, readers are spun through a delightful tale of a young family's journey to cope with their mother's death. The story ingeniously blends historical realism, adventures in time travel and the exploration of the ways in which young people deal with trauma. I especially enjoyed the book because it successfully portrays real-life emotional transitions that allow the reader to connect with the characters on more complex levels
I would recommend The Golden Hour for both recreational reading and also as a tool to help in dealing with the death of a family member. This book is written intelligently and put together with sophistication.
A new twist on Ancient History
Picking up not long after she left off in The Golden Hour, Williams' new adventure covers much more territory than the first. Xanthe Alexander, while enjoying a short reprieve from her twin brother Xavier, is overly busy beating herself up. While out on the porch studying math to distract herself, she happens to notice something in the pond. Much to her shock, she realizes it's her best friend Rowan. As it turns out, she, Rowan and Nina have been called back to Owatannauk, Maine to assist in a special project: collecting historical items for customers of the curio shop.
After a brief run-through of Egyptian history, the trio are costumed and sent on their way. Xanthe, pleased to finally have something her brother does not, has lost sight of the mission almost before it's begun. When Xavier later shows up in Alexandria, she loses it completely. Though the children have been forewarned not to interact with anyone important, when Xanthe accidentally runs into Cleopatra while exiting an alleviator in a Temple of Isis, she finds it all too easy to let the girl believe she is the godess she's come to worship. In secret, she begins making trips to see the princess as she ages, following her through history. Moody and distracted during the day, it doesn't take long for the others to figure out something's up. She feeds Rowan a lie to pass on to the others, but Xavier knows her better than that, and follows her on her next visit. Furious as she is at the discovery, it turns out to be the least of their troubles, as they get stuck overnight in the wrong year, and return to Owatannauk only to find they've created an alternate branch of the universe and are stuck out of time.
With the help of the alternates in the new Owatanauk, and Rowan and Nina, Xanthe and Xavier, or Isis and Osiris, scheme up an incredible plot to return history to its correct path, which is their only chance to undo the damage, and return to their own time. A much heavier read than the first of the series, The Hour of the Cobra covers far more territory than The Golden Hour, but is equally enjoyable. I'd recommend reading them in order, only because most of the mystery of Owatannauk is told in the first book, though there is a brief summarization for the reader at the beginning of this story.
A tale of jealousy, friendship, teamwork and faith, The Hour of the Cobra is well worth a look.
November 18, 2007
CSLA Conference (California School Library Association)
Ontario, CA
"Making History Fun: History in a Fantastical Setting."