Silent Echoes

Wonderful girl story. At first I thought the connection thing was contrived, but the characters were compelling in their problems and I really enjoyed the perspective of a location in two different time periods. Great read.

Lucy Phillips and her father are scamming the gentry of 1880's New York City. Posing as a medium, Lucy pretends to contact their dear-departed during séances. Her conscience pricks her as she offers false hope to grief stricken family members but her empty stomach bothers her more so she endures and aids her father's swindles. To her utter shock, one night in the middle of a séance she hears a real voice in her head begging, " Help me!" The voice she hears is a present day teen named Lindsey who is hiding in her bedroom closet to escape the alcoholic rages of her mother and step-father. Both Lucy and Lindsey are shocked by the contact. Lucy thinks she has really made contact with a ghost, while Lindsey suspects she may be spiraling into mental illness. I enjoy time shift-time travel books and I was drawn in to each girl's story. Lindsey is struggling to succeed in school and life while dealing with her mother's drinking problems. Lucy is trying escape grueling poverty. How the girls use this connection through time to help each other is the gist of this tale.

After reading "Thicker than Water," I was eagerly anticipating the release of Carla Jablonski's most recent book, "Silent Echoes." "Silent Echoes" gives readers two books for the price of one! The book seamlessly moves between the worlds of Lucy Phillips in nineteenth century New York City and that of Lindsay in modern-day New York City. Both Lucy and Lindsay are endearing characters, and it gets really exciting when their worlds collide! Lucy and her father make a living using Lucy as a "medium," but their lives change when Lucy actually begins to be able to communicate with a "voice." Lindsay returns from summer camp to find her mother re-married. The lives of Lucy and Lindsay mirror each other despite the difference in centuries. Both girls help each other with the various problems that they encounter. Jablonski's very well-researched novel fills both worlds with interesting details; (my favorite was the discussion of a "dancing chair" that Methodists used in the nineteenth century so that the opposite sex did not have to touch each other!) Anyone interested in the history of the city of New York will also love it! "Silent Echoes" should be on the reading lists of all schools. Not only is it rich in historical details, but it is complete with real characters with whom young adults from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries can identify! Lucy and Lindsay often worry that they are somehow altering history through their communication. Jablonski's book cannot help altering history--it is totally awesome!!!

It's 1882, and Lucy Phillips and her father are running scams to keep a roof over their heads. Tonight is their first attempt at a séance, with Lucy playing the medium. If it goes well, this could turn into a regular and profitable enterprise for them. Planning only to play her audience with already acquired information, Lucy is shocked to hear a voice that no one else can hear. Maybe she really has contacted the dead! In the present time, Lindsay Miller is on the floor in her closet trying not to hear the screaming and the crash of dishes coming from the kitchen. Her mom is drunk again and fighting with her latest fling. Unfortunately, this one's not just a fling, this one's her new step-dad. If only there were someone, anyone, she could talk to. The last thing she expected was a voice with no form to come from her closet! Lucy's new "abilities" as a medium are causing a huge stir. Her ability to predict the future is uncanny. She and her father are rapidly becoming more than financially stable. On the other end of time, Lindsay's world is shredding to pieces. Everyone thinks she's crazy. They even tried to keep her in a mental institution! Now she's a runaway who's running out of money. And the only friend she can talk to is not only literally light years away, she's part of why all of this is happening. Between the two girls, and across hundreds of years, can they figure out how to save each other? This book was completely enthralling. The storyline is fantastic. The characters are strong and interesting. Their situations and experiences are pretty realistic. It's just such a cool idea; I'm so glad it was done well! It's really interesting to look at how a similar situation plays out so completely differently in two time periods; it's almost the opposite of what you'd expect. Normally you'd think "We have so many more resources now, and people are so much more open-minded. Obviously Lindsay would have an easier time of it." But that's not quite how it goes. Not to say that Lucy has an easy time. Oh, go read the book! I don't want to give anything away. Although I will tell you that the solution is really great! Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman