Falling Out of Time

Falling Out of Time
Margaret Peterson Haddix
HarperCollins, 2023
352 pages
Grades 3-7
Science Fiction/Adventure

Zola has a great life, or so she is told everyday. Her outfits appear in her Insta-Closet every morning and whatever she wants to eat is quickly served in her Insta-Oven. Now that it's 2193 all of the problems of the world, including environmental and social, have been solved. Zola attends school virtually with like-minded learners from all over the world. Then, one day, everything changes. A handwritten note appears in her Insta-Closet inviting all kinds of questions and doubts if everything truly is as it seems. Finally, a meeting with Mom in the Insta-Closet, the only private place without monitoring, reveals that she is related to Jessie, who escaped from Clifton Village years ago and now it is up to her to do the same.  A secret escape hatch in the Insta-Closet leads Zola to the outside world, which is the opposite of where she lives. In facts, it is a cautionary tale of what will happen if changes aren't made to the world in 2023. Tagging along with a school group reveals that Zola's life is completely false and, much like her ancestor Jessie, she must escape to tell the world the truth. Luckily, Zola makes a friend, giving her a partner in the endeavor, and the escape is on--all while "the powers that be" try to stop the young people in order to preserve their social experiment.

1995's first book by Haddix, Running Out of TIme is one of the most recommended books of my career. I love the premise of the story and the adventure keeps readers turning pages. Unfortunately, in later years it has become more of a shelf sitter, taking a backseat to some of the author's more highly profiled works, such as the Shadow Children series. Now with this long-awaited sequel, the original is getting a second life. Yay! With this new volume Haddix twists the basic idea, putting the character in the supposed future instead of the past. There are recurring characters from the original that fans of the first (such as myself) will be happy to see. Most of today's young people are not familiar with the original and it does not need to be read in order to understand the sequel. Zola has an independent adventure and the revelations that she encounters about her life are so cool that no knowledge of the first is necessary. As with all of Haddix's books I found this a "concept story" in that the concept is so unbelievably alluring that it carries the book along. After Zola figures out what is going on and runs away, I found the story a bit frantic, though young readers will like the dashing-around and will be happy with the way the story goes. A long-awaited sequel that made this long-time fan happy, yet, much like the first, lacks in execution while boasting an amazing concept.