London Calling by Edward Bloor (Knopf, 2006)(excerpt). When he falls asleep listening to a Philco 20 Deluxe radio, Martin Conway, a miserable scholarship student at All Saints Preparatory School, begins to have amazingly realistic dreams or, as he believes, time travel adventures with another boy during the London Blitz of WWII. The story deftly explores the relationships between fathers and sons and demonstrates how history can touch and affect the present. A ghost story, a historical novel, a mystery, and a time travel adventure bundled into one book, this elegant novel defies genre classification and shows Bloor is, once again, not afraid to take chances in his writing. Recommendation by Frances Hill.See also a review of London Calling from Teenreads.com.
Guest recommender Frances Hill is the author of The Bug Cemetery, illustrated by Vera Rosenberry (Henry Holt, 2002). She lives in the Austin area and is married to YA author Brian Yansky.
