Angel of the Battlefield

Adult author Hood’s first middle-grade offering launches the planned eight-book Treasure Chest series, which has 12-year-old twins Maisie and Felix Robbins traveling through time to meet iconic American figures from centuries past. Unhappy about moving from their New York City apartment to their ailing great-aunt’s mansion in Newport, R.I., the twins, who are still reeling from their parents’ recent divorce, make the best of it by exploring their new home, discovering hints of magic as they do. In a room called the Treasure Chest, filled with collected odds and ends of every variety, Maisie and Felix inadvertently travel back to 1836 Massachusetts, where they befriend a teenage Clara Barton (who would go on to organize the Red Cross), before learning how to return home—and perhaps even helping history along a bit. The twins’ personalities (and their historical ignorance) are believable, and there’s a strong, nostalgic sense of the push and pull between past and present woven throughout. While Maisie and Felix’s mother often encourages them to “Stop dwelling on the past,” they can’t help but be drawn to a time—before the move, before the divorce—when things seemed better. Ages 8–12. (Jan.)