Time Like a River

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

It was supposed to be a good month for Margie Belzer: the cutest guy in
school was starting to notice her; her history teacher had just told her
that she was special kind of student; and, best of all, Margie was about
to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah, the most important ceremony in a young
Jewish girl’s life.

The family marks her 13th birthday at her favorite Chinese restaurant.
But two weeks later, the Belzer family is facing the possibility that
Margie’s mother might be dying. Instead of coming to a full stop,
Margie’s life becomes a whirlwind as school, history, her Bat Mitzvah,
and her mother’s mysterious illness all becoming interlocking pieces
of the same confusing process.

This fine book, set in Oakland, California, features an intricately
woven tale of race, religion, time travel, and growing up, as well as a
narrative that frequently crosses cultures (Margie’s best friend is
Isabel Molina, a Mexican-American whose Catholicism is as strong as
Margie’s Jewish faith). To save her mother, Margie travels back in
time to 1890s Oakland, where she becomes forever entangled in the
destiny of a struggling Chinese immigrant family. The authors also
explore the true nature of history by examining what it actually means
to different cultures. Recommended.