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STELLAR STORIES: Tangled in Time

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The Portal
By Kathryn Lasky
Harper, 2019. Fiction.

After Rose's mom dies, she is sent to live with her aging grandmother in Indianapolis. Off to a rocky start at first, Rose is bullied at school, has a hard time making friends, and finds her grandmother distant and constantly disoriented. This begins to change when Rose realizes that her grandmother's greenhouse is a secret portal to the court of Henry VIII and she can time-travel back to the 16th century. As a chambermaid for Princess Elizabeth, Rose finds herself caught up in the Tudor court - and a hunt for her long-lost father - while her own middle school drama plays out back home.

Kathryn Lasky balances a contemporary realistic and historical fiction setting in this time-traveling adventure. The parallels between the modern world and the Hatfield Palace of Princess Elizabeth are mostly convincing and readers will be enticed by the frequent back-and-forths from the present to the past. This book ends with some pretty big unanswered questions and a cliffhanger that promises an exciting series to come. Fans of historical fiction should read this one eagerly.

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