Turnabout - Hardcover

Margaret Peterson Haddix is the bestselling author of many novels for young readers, including Because of Anya, Takeoffs and Landings, Turnabout, Just Ella, Leaving Fishers, and the Shadow Children series. Her work has been honored with the International Reading Association Children's Book Award, ALA Best Books for Young Adults and Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers citations, and state readers' choice lists in twenty-eight states. Margaret graduated from Miami University with degrees in creative writing, journalism, and history, and has worked as a newspaper reporter and a community college instructor. She lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Doug, and their children, Meredith and Connor.

Grade 6-10-Eighty-five years ago, Melly and Anny Beth were old women participating in a highly secret research study that reversed the aging process. However, the directors of Project Turnabout couldn't halt the reversal, and the women have "unaged" back into teenagers. Soon they will become so young that they will no longer care for themselves. Even worse, a reporter's interest in Melly is threatening to destroy the privacy that the teens alone still value in the publicity-mad culture of the year 2085. The suspense is unflagging as the two flee from unwanted exposure and search for a way to live out the rest of their days. The futuristic setting, including the consensual media circus of daily life, is scarily believable. The girls are well drawn, distinct characters, their teenaged selves logical extensions of their adult personas with one important difference: Melly and Anny Beth have learned from the mistakes of their "first lives" and accomplished more the second time around. The novel ends with the suggestion that longer life might be a blessing, an unusual perspective in science fiction and fantasy for young people, where extreme longevity is often depicted as a burden. Recommend this one to fans of Michael Crichton and Robin Cook, or pair it with Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting (Farrar, 1975) for a thoughtful discussion about human life and human potential.
Beth Wright, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, VT
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