The Left Behinds: The iPhone That Saved George Washington

In the first book in a planned series, three boarding-school students whose parents are too busy to pick them up for the holidays decide to spend an educational Christmas Day at a reenactment of Washington’s fateful crossing of the Delaware. But after a new app, iTime, mysteriously appears on their iPhones, they find themselves in a 1776 barn, staring at the freshly shot body of General George Washington. Narrator Mel quickly realizes that he, Bev, and Brandon must travel further back in time in order to stop the assassination and ensure that the Continental Army’s leader can lead the revolutionaries to victory. First-time novelist Potter tries to interject humor into the proceedings—Mel’s narration is consistently irreverent, and the kids travel to Philadelphia to get Ben Franklin to recharge their iPhone batteries—but it’s hard to play the Battle of Trenton for laughs, with 12-year-olds wielding bayonets and a field littered with Hessian corpses. The overlong story doesn’t end so much as pause, with this group of young “Left Behinds” confronting their next challenge. Ages 8–12. Agent: Brian DeFiore, DeFiore and Company. (Jan.)