34. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Passenger #1
read on my iPhone
2016, Disney-Hyperion
498 pgs.
YA Time Travel
Finished 6/20/2017
Goodreads rating: 3.85 - 23,715 ratings
My rating: 2.5
Setting: Contemporary NYC with forays to 1776, ancient middle east, etc.

First line/s:  "As they ascended, retreating farther from the winding trails that marked the way to nearby villages, the world opened to him in its purest form:  silent, ancient, mysterious.  Deadly."

My comments:  2.5  I usually like time travel stories.  I just could not understand how this one worked.  I'm not sure the author did, either....or at least didn't know how to get it across to her audience.  Some of the description was ridiculously long and there was too much inner turmoil about the love-dovey stuff.  And it seemed to start in a weird place.  Other than that, it was okay.  It left it way up in the air about what would happen next - or not happen next - and, to tell the truth, I don't really care what happens.  Ate least at this moment.  Sol maybe a three rating is a little generous?

Goodreads synopsis  
Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.
          In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.
          Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.
          Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.

PICTURE BOOK - Vanilla Ice Cream - Bob Graham

Illustrated by the author

2014 Candlewick Press

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.54

My rating: 4

Endpapers: peach with subtle leaf repetitions

Setting:  Contemporary India; over the ocean; then a city of white people

1^st line/s:  "The young sparrow rises from the dust.  He looks down at Annisha and Suhami."

My comments:  This is one clever, adorable book.  Limited words, super illustrations.  Some pages have several boxes to closely examine - sort of a beginning graphic novel.  The whole time you're reading you're thinking ... vanilla ice cream?  This is about a sparrow's journey -- but the cute twist at the end is fun.

Goodreads:  A wild sparrow’s journey sets in motion a toddler’s new experience in Bob Graham’s tale of life’s surprising little turns — and unlikely connections.
          Following some food, a curious young sparrow stows away in the back of a truck and takes an unusual voyage south — through the lush rice paddies of India, across the rough sea, and all the way into a bright new day. As the sun rises high over the city, he finds little Edie at a café with her grandma and granddad, and for a fleeting instant, his world meets up with hers and changes her life in the most delightful way. From the masterful Bob Graham comes an invitation to notice the smallest of moments as they unfold around us, full of unexpected promise.