From Publishers Weekly
Irish folklore supplies the ingredients for debut author Corbett's creative contemporary fantasy, set in Long Island, N.Y. When stressed-out mom and Newsday reporter Bernadette McBride unwittingly drinks a potion just before making a toast "to youth," she wakes up and finds herself age 12 again, living in her childhood home with her Irish-born mother (who died in Bernadette's adulthood). Eventually, she discovers fairy magic is at work; while it's modern times outside the house, inside it's 1972. The story alternates between her perspective and that of Patrick, the oldest of her three sons, and readers get a strong sense of their emotions. Bernadette is thrilled to see her mother again but misses her family fiercely, feeling especially guilty for heaping too much responsibility on Patrick; he regrets thinking of her as a "burr on his shoelace." Bernadette, enrolled at school as "Detta," shares a class with Patrick, but doesn't want anyone, not even Patrick, to know about her transformation. In addition to the colorful folk traditions, Corbett supplies funny details as Bernadette adjusts to middle school (she bests a bully and is stumped when classmates ask her if she likes the Backstreet Boys). Though many of Bernadette's sentiments may make more sense to adults (particularly her ardent desire to please her mother) and some of the premise is fuzzy (Bernadette delays contacting Patrick for flimsy reasons), overall, this is a well-orchestrated and heartwarming read. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7 A riveting first novel. Overwhelmed with her life as a mother, wife, and newspaper journalist, Bernadette McBride decides to spend the night at her late Irish mother's house. Helping herself to some mysterious liquid in the pantry, Bernadette ruefully wishes to be young again. When she awakens, she has been transformed into a 12-year-old on what should be her 40th birthday. She hears her mother calling her down for breakfast and is at first jubilant, but then realizes how complex her life has become. She enrolls in her oldest son's school and tries to figure out how to undo her wish and get back to her husband and three boys. As weeks go by, her family assumes the worst but her son Patrick is certain that his mother will try to contact him, and he never gives up hope. When he receives her mysterious and untraceable e-mail sending him off on a dangerous errand, he realizes that her rescue is completely in his hands, and the results measure up to a satisfying conclusion. Corbett's story, told from the alternating points of view of 12-year-old Patrick and Bernadette, is an extraordinary alchemy of elements that makes for an engaging read. The dialogue is natural and believable, and the emotions expressed by the characters are genuine. A great mix of fairy charms, Irish folklore, humor, mystery, and familial love. -Janet Gillen, Great Neck Public Library, NY
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gr. 5-8. This clever time-slip story is told from the alternating perspectives of its two protagonists--12-year-old Patrick and his mother, Bernadette, who becomes 12 again through wishful thinking and by drinking a potion she finds in her deceased mother's house. Inside that house, where she's gone to work on her writing and get away from her family and chaotic home life, it's 1972; her laptop doesn't work and her mother is alive again. When "Detta" ventures out, she is no longer grown: she is 12, and she finds herself attending her son Patrick's Long Island school. He doesn't know who she is, so his scenes with "the new girl" are truly strange. Although Bernadette basks in her mother's love, she misses her family and knows she must find a way to make things as they were. But she needs Patrick's help to do it, according to her mother, whose Gaelic knowledge of the unseen world comes in handy. This many-layered tale of magic across generations gives the term coming-of-age fascinating new meaning. Diane Foote
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
A riveting first novel. (School Library Journal)
About the Author
Sue Corbett is the daughter of Irish immigrants and grew up in a Long Island neighborhood very similar to the one depicted in 12 Again. Ms. Corbett has worked as a journalist for fifteen years in Missouri, South Carolina, Florida and, now, Virginia, where she lives with her husband and their three young children. As anyone who knows her will tell you, she really is half-Looney. However, she has only been twelve once. (So far.)
