As risky as it is to return to a cherished childhood read, Charlotte Sometimes gave as much to me as an adult as it did at age 10.

The story is a combination of two things I adored as a young reader – boarding schools and timeslips. It’s 1958 when Charlotte Makepeace chooses a bed by the window in her new dorm, only to wake up to a slightly different view – for now it’s 1918 and she’s mistaken for a girl named Clare. Her new sister Emily is in bed beside her; her father is at war.

She continues to switch between Charlotte and Clare, and life is challenging in two eras. She’s guarded and insecure, but what happens next even more profoundly rocks her sense of identity. The language is beautiful, if a little old-fashioned, and the insights about living someone else’s life are timeless.

[[emily-gale-staff-pic]] Emily Gale