Book Review: Don't Know Where, Don't Know When (The Snipesville Chronicles #1) by Annette Laing

Summary:

What a nightmare. Hannah Dias, California Girl with Attitude, and Alex, her laid-back brother, have moved from exciting San Francisco to boring Snipesville, Georgia. Life doesn't improve when they meet Brandon, a dorky kid who is plotting his escape from the Deep South, and the weird Professor, who has a strange secret.

Suddenly, the kids are catapulted thousands of miles and almost seventy years to England during World War Two.   They fall into a world of stinging nettles, dragon ladies, bomb blasts, ugly underwear, stinky sandwiches, painful punishments, and non-absorbing toilet paper. They learn so much more than they could ever learn in a history class. Not that they want to learn it.

But they can't go home unless they find George Braithwaite, whoever he is, and whatever it is that he has to do with Snipesville.

Review:
This was a sweet story about a brother and sister and their friend.  The kids unknowingly travel through time from present day Georgia to 1940's England in the middle of World War II.  I'm no history buff, but I enjoyed reading about what life was like in that time.  We follow the siblings in 1940's England for most of the book, and we also get to read about England during World War I, as one of the kids time travels back an additional 25 years.  I like historical fiction, so I found that enjoyable about this story. 

The mysteries of time travel were never fully explained, all the kids knew was that it happened with no rhyme or reason.  Actually, there was a reason: the kids went back in time to affect changes in certain characters' lives, changes which had impacts reaching into the present day story.  The book ends with some closure for Alex, Brandon, and Hannah, but there is also a segue into the sequel, which I found intriguing.  The premise is unique and the writing is witty.  Annette Laing did a good job with Don't Know Where, Don't Know When. 

 

Just One Gripe:

I enjoyed this a lot, but it was more of a younger book for me.  It was written on a maturity level similar to Incarceron, The City of Ember, and The Maze Runner.  The writing and attention to detail; however, made up for this.

The Best Thing About This Book:

I liked the attention to detail. 

Appropriate for a younger audience:

Yes

As this is more of a children's book, I am scoring it against other children's books. A five star children's book is not equivalent to a five star adult book, in my opinion.

Score:

Characters: 5/5

Plot:  4/5

Setting/Imagery:  5/5

Originality: 5/5

Ending: 5/5

Total Score:  24/25

Don't Know Where Don't Know When was a 3.5 star book for me personally, but I am rating it against other children's lit and it deserves 5 stars for that genre.

*I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an impartial review.