Entertaining little time travel story. Starts off slow, but picks up towards the middle. ( )

Read this with my daughter for her required reading for 5th grade home school. It's a great jumping-off point for some history lessons, but the story itself is not super in-depth on those kinds of details. There are spots where it gets a little heavy since it deals with concepts like death, illness, aging, family conflict, and being an only child vs. having multiple siblings, but this, again, is a good way to start talking about these kinds of things. Definitely multiple directions you can take with a lesson plan, and many opportunities for cross-curricula teaching. The version I have even teaches you how to play "ringer" (old fashioned marble game), which is pretty cool, especially since it makes the book more interactive in a way, and therefore more concrete and interesting for kids less inclined to be inside reading (or an incentive to put down the book for a bit and get outside for us bookworms :) ). ( )

A ghost story that is not too scary for children but still gives a sense of eeriness that kids will love. Brings family history into play and also talks about history and how life was like in 1910, the time that Drew travels back to.

Entertaining little time travel story. Starts off slow, but picks up towards the middle. ( )

If it isn't enough for Drew to have to spend the summer with his creepy aunt, Blythe, at her creepy house, imagine his surprise when he meets an ancestor who looks oddly like him. Is the ancestor a ghost or an illusion? Drew finds out quickly once he trades places behind the door and the story unravels. This book, due to its eerie content would probably be best for upper level elementary. This is a good way to introduce to the topic of diphtheria to students who otherwise may never know what a tragedy it used to be. ( )