Rewind

Abstract

Reviewed by: Rewind Deborah Stevenson Page, Jan Rewind. Walker, 2005 [224p] ISBN 0-8027-8995-1$16.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10 Seized with the sudden desire to have a band, Liam pulls together his friends (and one friend's ex-girlfriend, who's gifted with instruments and a music room as well as with a decent voice) and starts to practice frantically for the Battle of the Bands. He's even more determined when he discovers his parents' secret teenage rock-band history and feels a strange connection to their drummer, who died at the age of sixteen—and who was also named Liam. The Liam-of-the-present meets the same lethal fate in a stage accident at the Battle of the Bands, and he becomes a ghost wandering through the past; he believes he needs to intervene in his parents' band and prevent the earlier Liam from dying, but instead he finds out secrets about his parents'—and his own—history that earn him a greater understanding of his family and a return to his life. Some of the plot moves, such as the sudden improvement in Liam's family, aren't particularly convincing, but the time-travel device works its reliable magic. Liam's rueful puzzlement is by turns comic and touching; his present life is indeed pretty grim, and the revelation about the past—it was the earlier Liam who was actually Liam's biological father—is certainly a plausible source for the family discord. This gritty British import gives a rougher edge than usual to the Back to the Future plotline, and that and the garage-band element will appeal to readers who also wonder how their families got that way. Copyright © 2005 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois