Tangled in Time

Darleen R. Golke is a high-school teacher-librarian in Winnipeg,
Manitoba.

Along with Mom, little Roddy, and their neighbor Dennis, Janna is
traveling to grandmother Omie’s house in Edmonton. Fifteen months
after her father’s fatal car crash, Janna is still heartsore. Even
Omie’s assigning her a room with her favorite painting of a dark pool
surrounded by trees doesn’t lessen Janna’s depression.

Turning in early the first night, Janna glimpses a wraithlike figure
among the trees in the painting and is suddenly transported back in time
to the year 1933, where she meets Charles Randolph. She later dismisses
the episode as a dream. However, after Mom and Dennis announce their
engagement, she returns to the painting only to be flung back to the
Edmonton of 1934. Janna finds herself part of the Vriend family. When
the family heads north to Oom Klaas’s farm in Neerlandia, Janna losses
her chance to return to the painting in the Randolph’s library. Almost
two years pass before she again has access to the painting and returns
to the present, leaving her beloved Charles behind.

Janna visits the past one last time, receives distressing news, and
returns to the present. After Omie discloses some interesting details
about their heritage, Janna comes to understand why she had to go back
in time; the present meets the past in a surprising climax.

This fifth novel by the late Lynn Fairbridge features an appealing
protagonist. Fans of the time-travel genre will sympathize with
Janna’s struggles (she is woefully ill-equipped to cope with life in
the Depression) and appreciate the story’s resolution. Recommended.