End of school insanity

The end of the school year is absolutely insane, you know? This week and next are packed to the point where I'm wondering if I can somehow finagle a non-soul-destroying way to split myself into seven so I can make it to everything. I was so tired today that the pavement in front of the grocery store was looking tempting as a place to take a nap. I was supposed to help a neighbor with her move, but the one hour I was available, she wasn't there, which in retrospect was probably a good thing, as I could barely function at the time. They were still at it tonight, so I sent my boys over to help out.

One of today's events was the middle school orchestra concert. The fifth graders have learned a lot this year! We stayed for sixth grade, and one of the pieces they did was written (in piano form) by the parents of one of the students. The student--yes, age 12--arranged it for orchestra. She also won an arranging contest for it. I was extremely impressed! I guess it's just another day in SE Idaho, though--I mean, I'm starting to actively expect this sort of thing as normal for around here.

Ruby Red series, by Kerstin Gier

Okay, so really, this is a review of the whole trilogy. But if you are looking for a fun time travel YA series, let me recommend this one. I am almost but not quite impervious to famous people blurbing books, but when I saw that Jackie Dolamore blurbed the first one, I admit, I was swayed. And I'm glad! Soooo fun.

The story: Gwyneth (Gwendolyn in the original German) Shepherd is perfectly normal, thank you. She goes to school with regular kids and the usual odd assortment of teachers, and the only unusual thing about her is that she can see ghosts. But it's not anything that disturbs her life in general, and anyway, Great Aunt Maddy has visions sometimes. Compared to her bless-the-ground-she-walks-on cousin Charlotte, though, there is nothing special about Gwen. Charlotte, it has been foretold, carries a special time traveling gene--the twelfth person of only twelve in history. Everyone's waiting for perfect Charlotte to make the first uncontrolled time trip. Except...it's not Charlotte who gets dizzy and ends up in the past. It's Gwen. It turns out her parents lied about her birth date, and she actually has the foretold gene, not her cousin. Unlike Charlotte, Gwen has not spent a lifetime learning fencing and 18th century ballroom dancing and the secret language of fans. She's been doing what any normal teenager does--ie, watching movies with her best friend Leslie. It's...kind of a shock, both for Gwen and for the sometimes overly secretive and prissy time travel society. Also, frustrating for Gwen when she finds out she's part of a mystery that no one will explain.

For centuries, everyone's been waiting for the twelfth time traveler to show up. When every traveler's blood has been read into the chronograph (time machine--they prick their finger on it to travel), something miraculous is supposed to happen. Except...twenty years ago, two time travelers stole the chronograph to prevent the circle from ever being completed. Today, the travelers rely on a backup chronograph, and have had to start over again to collect the er, samples. Gwen's expected to go along with all of this, except that no one, not even the attractive and frustrating Gideon de Villiers who is the other time traveler her age, will tell her anything. They're afraid she'll join the other side, so they keep her in the dark. It's up to Gwen to figure out who to trust and what is really going on.

Things I love about these books:

The main character. Seriously. I've read a lot of books where the main character is sort of a blank slate. Gwenny (Gwendolyn/Gwyneth, depending on which language you're reading it in) has an actual personality. She's funny! And lets you know everything else she's feeling, too. It was very fun to hang out in her head.

Leslie, her best friend. One of my favorite best friends in a book. She's funny, she's supportive, and she does stuff. She's also not above telling Gwen when she's overdoing it.

All the ghosts. I love how Gwen is friends with them, the interaction between them, and well, Xemerius's running commentary, lol. (He's a gargoyle ghost who shows up in the second book.)

The fact that Gwen has an actual family that she interacts with. Of course I love to hate Aunt Glenda and Charlotte and feel put off by frosty Lady Arista. But the rest of them! I love the feeling of them all hanging out together, secretly having cake parties or whatever. I love her grandfather. I love the butler. A lot of YA books feature characters who are really alone (probably because it's hard to keep track of a lot of characters when you're writing). But the truth is, teens are surrounded by people, and usually do have families. Ditto, I love it that there are some nice people at the secret lodge, too (like Mr. George). There's a very large cast of characters, and yet they were all distinct and interesting.

The way the author makes you love and hate a certain green-eyed De Villiers boy. Really, I didn't know how she was going to turn that one around! But she did.

A wonderfully fun read full of humor, romance, mystery, and time travel. The last book comes out this fall in English (luckily, I read German, so I was able to order it and actually read it without my kids trying to swipe it from me. I'm thinking of ordering more books in German for the same reason... :) )