Come Back, Lucy (Puffin Books)

I read this book as a child, and recently bought it for my 11-year-old daughter and she loved it. It is set in the Christmas season and very nicely describes a British as well as a Victorian Christmas. I enjoyed the comparisons between Victorian life and more modern-day (1970s). Don't try to figure it out, though, I couldn't. Was Alice a ghost or was Lucy time-traveling?

I loved this book as a child, and am about to order it so I can have it as the book equivalent of comfort food! For someone like me who can't remember titles or authors' names to save her life, it says a lot about my love for this book that I can remember the author's name 30 years after I read it -- the only book by Pamela Sykes at my local library. It was one of the first time travel books I read, if not the first, and it helped to hook me on the genre for life.

In Mirror of Danger, by Pamela Skyes, a girl named Lucy finds herself in the wrong era. As the book starts, we find Lucy in the 1970s. Lucy is cursed with a terrible loss, and a new beginning. Lucy's Aunt Olive, who took care of her all of her life, had died. As a result, Lucy moves in with a new family, her Aunt Gwen and Uncle Peter. They also introduce their three rebel children, Patrick, Bill, and Rachel. Once Lucy moves in, she realizes that she is in a terrible state. Lucy, being the renaissance Princess that she is, looks at her 3 cousins as her worst nightmare, unleashed. One day when she is hiding in the attic, she meets someone peculiar named Alice. Oddly, Alice is just like Lucy. Both of them act civil and like they are from the 1800s. The only problem is that Lucy soon finds herself in the 1870s, 100 years in the past!!! Alice slowly digs her claws into Lucy, bringing her into the past more and more, over and over again. How long can Lucy hold out? When I usually pick out a book, I pick by the book blog. This time, when I looked for a book I picked by the cover. The cover was interesting to me, so I picked it up. When I started to read it, I enjoyed it more and more. The characters were so amazing. There was always more to learn every time I turned the page. The book never got boring either it had many shocks and I was always anxious to turn the page. Even though, the book was great, it wasn't perfect. The book got confusing when it changed settings from the 1870s to the 1970s. It was also confusing on how Lucy made the transitions. If you like exciting stories about the renaissance era, this is for you! But, if you want horror, terrors, and a great sense of thrill, pick up something else! (...)

I have this novel in it's original form, under the title "Come Back, Lucy". It is quite a lovely story and the author seems to really understand the lonliness and wretchedness felt by Lucy after she is plunged into her new life. The historical facts of Alice's life are well researched, without being dry. If you can get a copy of this book, I can really recommend it!

This is a truly wonderful book. It is a sweet, descriptive tale of the changes in young girl's (Lucy's) life after her aunt dies, and when she is sent to live with her cousins. She feels as though she doesn't fit in there, and only has one friend to keep her company. Lucy is haunted in many ways, and she feels her life spiral away from her new family and towards her new friend, until she has to choose betweent the present and the past. It is a wonderful read, I loved it as a child and I wish I could find it again.