Book Review: The Clock in the Attic — by Tyler Perez, 8th grade
I usually prefer football to books, but my cousin lent me The Clock in the Attic by Dana Michael, and I finished it in two days. It is the most exciting novel I have read this year.
The story is about Maya, a twelve-year-old girl from Portland. One rainy afternoon she finds an old clock in her grandmother's attic. When she turns its hands backwards, she suddenly finds herself in the same house — but one hundred years earlier. There is no electricity, no phones and no way back home, unless she can repair the broken clock.
What I liked most was Maya herself. She is brave, but she is not perfect. She makes mistakes, she gets scared, and sometimes she is rude to people who try to help her. That made her feel like a real person. I also enjoyed the descriptions of life in the past, like washing clothes by hand and carrying water from a well.
The book has one weakness. The middle part is a bit slow, and I almost gave up around chapter seven. However, the last chapters are so full of surprises that it was worth waiting.
I recommend this book to readers aged eleven and up, especially to anyone who has ever wished to visit another time. Just be careful: you may not want to put it down.