Moonleapers (Moonleapers #1)

White-cued middle schooler Maisie feels like she’s the only one of her classmates who doesn’t own a smartphone. Though Maisie is excited to unexpectedly receive a phone from her mother, the tween is puzzled by the gift’s origins: The device once belonged to Maisie’s ill great-aunt Hazel, who wanted Maisie to have it despite their not having seen each other in years. When the tween learns that her parents must care for Hazel during the summer, the family leaves Ohio for Hazel’s Maryland gated community home, where Maisie babysits her rambunctious younger siblings while her parents are busy. Maisie’s only forms of entertainment are Hazel’s pets, Cat the Great and Little Dog, and the odd texts and nursery rhyme–themed riddles that Maisie receives from an anonymous sender. It soon becomes apparent that Hazel has passed along more than an old cellphone. She was a Moonleaper, a time traveling spy, and Maisie must now take up the mantle and leap into Hazel’s past to change her great-aunt’s—and the world’s—future. A slow-moving buildup gives way to ample tension and suspense as Maisie jumps through time. Haddix (The Stolen Key) forefronts depictions of Hazel’s childhood during the Great Depression and WWII in this potent series-opening adventure about one person’s power to change the world. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Sept.)