The Wells Bequest by Polly Shulman - ADVISABLE

Shulman, Polly. The Wells Bequest. 253 pages.  Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin), 2013.  $16.99. Content: G.  A companion novel to the charming The Grimm Legacy, which is well worth a read, but doesn’t need to be read first.  The narrator is Leo, a self-deprecating, smart kid who feels out of place in a family of geniuses.  His whole world changes when a miniature Leo appears on a time machine with a beautiful girl.  His mini-me from the future tells him to read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells.  A science project leads him to the New York Circulating Materials Repository (a kind of library for things), where he meets a life-sized version of the beautiful girl.  Her name is Jaya and she is the head page.  In an attempt to get to know Jaya better, Leo begins a job as a page and soon learns that there are all sorts of magical and scientifically impossible items at the library—including a time machine.  While the novel’s pacing is steady and plot imaginative, the book is a little quark-y.  “Quark” is not a misspelling; it’s a scientific term that is used as a creative cuss word.  There are a whole lot of scientific terms and science fiction literary references.  The time travel is actually only a very small part of the book, which disappointed me as a reader.  The “bad-guy’s” motivation seemed contrived and his overall character never convinced me.  The two main characters, however, are positively delightful and make reading it worthwhile. 

MS,  HS—Advisable.  Samantha Hastings, MA, MLS.