I liked the focus on Charlotte, her adjustment, her guilt that she is on her own and by her own choosing, and the decisions all of that leads her to make.

It seemed to fit, though, with her character's age, the book and the different passages of time between chapters. There seemed to be very little adjustment once Charlotte found herself alone, away from her father and Kitty. What readers and the characters know of its possibility and what it would mean sets things up nicely when Charlotte faces her dilemma. Here it doesn't involve magic or fancy machines, but physics and maybe chance. How time travel actually takes place in Once Was a Time is different from what I've read in other novels. Whether they actually would travel to another time and place given the opportunity is uncertain but they love hearing about the possibility. They know it's top secret and they can't tell anyone, know that even Charlotte's siblings aren't sure they believe him, but the girls believe. Once Was a Time is a time travel book more about time travel than time travelling - and more about friendship than either of them.Ĭharlotte and her best friend Kitty love hearing Charlotte's father speak about time travel. Written in the spirit of classic time-travel tales, this book is an imaginative and heartfelt tribute to the unbreakable ties of friendship. Should she remain with her friend or journey to another time and place? Her split-second decision has huge consequences, and when she finds herself alone in the world, unsure of Kitty's fate, she knows that somehow, some way, she must find her way back to her friend. But when Charlotte's scientist father makes an astonishing discovery that the Germans will covet for themselves, Charlotte is faced with an impossible choice between danger and safety.

In the war-ravaged England of 1940, Charlotte Bromley is sure of only one thing: Kitty McLaughlin is her best friend in the whole world.

Once Was a Time by Leila Sales