Westfallen explores the horrifying possibility of what life would be like if the Nazis had triumphed in World War II. Using trios of 12-year-olds in 1944 and 2023 who are mysteriously able to talk through history, the authors show the kids accidentally creating this alternate reality and then trying to set it right again. We are clearly set up for a sequel with a cliffhanger ending and little details throughout that seem like they will come into play in a later book.

Many of my students love historical fiction (especially World War II), but science fiction is a harder sell in my middle-grade classroom. This might be the book that gets them hooked, as long as they can keep track of which characters are in which time period since the chapters switch back and forth. The plot is gripping, making this a page-turner once you realize how badly things might turn out.

I hope this book is a success as my readers will be asking when the next one comes out the moment they finish the final page. Other teachers looking for clean, safe reads for their shelves should know that there are no content warnings for this one. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC provided in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Two trio of tweens, one group in 1944 and the other in 2023. Henry, Frances, & Lucas, former best friends gather in Henry’s backyard to bury their pet gerbil. While digging the hole, they find a radio that allows them to talk to Alice, Lawrence, and Artie in 1944. They initially talk about kid things, like candy. The 1944 kids want to know what the future is like – are there flying cars? The biggest question the 1944 kids have is about the war. Henry is aware of the “butterfly effect,” but how much harm could they do by saving a beloved candy store? You can guess where this is going – one change causes another to the point where 2023 is no longer recognizable. Will they be able to put things back the way they’re supposed to be?

I really enjoyed this book! Sometimes the time switching was difficult to follow and was slow in some areas but it works. It reminded me of the movie Frequency. I rarely say this but I think this will make a great movie. Apparently, this is book 1, which I did not know when I started reading. Definitely recommend for grade 4 and up.
#Westfallen #NetGalley

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Time Travel, Magical Realism, Thriller
Audience: Upper middle grade - young ya
Content: Prejudice and racism

Wow! WESTFALLEN is an exciting ride.

I love how it's easy to distinguish between the kids in the 1940s and present day. Though, I will add the modern day kids use the Lord's name and that will be off-putting for some audiences.

This is such an approachable way to talk about WWII and racism, making it relatable because of the time travel twist. I also loved how it's object not people that time travel.

One of the most chilling moments is when the kids realize that Westfallen is revealing the dark side that people have inside. I can see how a classroom could use this novel to start a discussion.

Will I read the next one? ABSOLUTELY!

Happy reading!

It’s rare for me to find a book that hasn’t been done already. It gets boring. This book was something new and I was hooked from the get-go.

Three kids in 2023 find an old radio buried in the yard. Three kids in 1944 rescue the same radio from the trash heap. Both groups turn on the radio and bingo. Contact. At first, both groups think they are talking to kids in their same existence, but it doesn’t take long for them to figure out this is a parallel-universe-across-time situation. Same town. Same neighborhood. Same backyard shed even.

But, everything is not going to be EXACTLY the same. The beloved candy shop from 1944 is gone. With a little help from Google, the 2023 kids inform the 1944 kids that it burned down. The 1944 kids decide to prevent the fire, which unleashes a whole slew of other problems. One being that a classmate of the 2023 kids is never born. The 1944 kids must now commit arson to restore the original future.

The problems keep getting bigger. Way bigger. As in catastrophic. One of the 2023 kids mentions the D-day invasion that will ultimately lead to the allies winning WW2. One of the 1944 kids mentions this to his father who mentions it to a German spy. And BAM! D-day is thwarted. The Germans beat the Americans. The 2023 America, now called Westfallen, is under Nazi rule.

One of the three 2023 kids in this alternate future is Jewish, which kicks it into high gear. The one who used to be a popular kid is now the social outcast. His friends must try to protect him from the Nazis while also working to undo this massive historical catastrophe. If you wanted more than just a story, something to sink your teeth into, there’s much to ponder. Such as whether it’s worth looking back and wishing for a different life. Because what if, in any other scenario, you would just be changing one disappointment for another? What if disappointment is inescapable? I love books that make me think.

A group of kids in New Jersey find a radio that communicates across the bounds of time. Preteens should probably not have access to this sort of power. Mistakes are made. America is erased. Now they must band together and save the world. Strong enough descriptor that I requested the ARC from Netgalley.

This is a middle grade entry in Ann Brashares's rolodex of novels that explore the importance of memory and identity. For a younger reading audience, this book packs some heft on the deep thoughts scale. There are some very poignant scenes where Frances, Henry, and Lukas of Westfallen must decide what makes them Frances, Henry, and Lukas of New Jersey. Alice and Lawrence's relationship. Lukas's life in Westfallen. Plenty of personal insights to be reflected upon with all the character dynamics.

Brashares shines at the heavy emotions, but I usually struggle with her writing. Her brother seems to have stepped in and saved her on that point. I'll admit it is not by much, however. I enjoyed the niggling sense that there was something special about Alice's first few chapters, but the writing became more simplistic as the adventure built up. The action kept enough pace for the pages to turn. I just wish there would have been a better formed tension.

There were ups, there were downs. This book managed to average out at 3 stars.

The beginning will definitely make you want to keep reading. I would have liked a little more background information on each group of kids, but I can see my students enjoying this book.

WESTFALLEN by the brother and sister duo Ann and Ben Brashares is an edge-of-your seat adventure for readers ages 8-12 that includes time travel and alternate history elements that change the contemporary world into an eerie dystopian alternate reality. It blends elements of communicating through time reminiscent of the older movie FREQUENCY with the dystopian, alternate history elements of THE MAN IN THE HIGH TOWER, only geared toward a Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience. It also includes a diverse cast of kids as the main characters and deals with themes of friendship, inclusivity and bigotry.

The story unfolds when three friends in the present, Henry, Frances and Lukas, come together after having drifted apart through middle school to bury a beloved pet they all shared. In the process, they uncover a mysterious radio that lets them talk to three other friends, Alice, Lawrence, and Artie, who live in the same town as them, but seventy-nine years in the past. What starts out as a fun and harmless comparison of life in 2023 to life in 1944 soon takes a dark turn. Somehow sharing information about the future with those in the past changes the outcome of WWII and causes the kids in 2023 to find themselves in an alternate United States controlled by the Nazis. Even worse, Henry, Lukas and Frances have no idea what they said that caused history to change or have any idea how they will be able to change it back.

The pacing in this novel never lets up. As each event occurs, the tension builds and things go from bad to worse with each domino drop. The authors did an excellent job as well of making it a mystery how the six kids will fix the past to save the future after they decide using the radio to communicate is too dangerous. Unfortunately, this is proven true after they've decided to take steps not to talk to each other anymore, leaving the 2023 group stranded in an new dystopian reality. Of course, determination, friendship and more than a little ingenuity helps as they slowly figure out what happened to change the past and concoct a plan to stop it from happening. However, just when you think everything is back to normal and the world has been saved from Nazi rule, some clues foreshadow that maybe not all the problems for the characters have been solved after all. The cliffhanger ending also leaves things open for more adventures to come.

I only wish that the release date for the sequel had been announced before I finished this first book. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves action and adventure with time travel, alternate history and dystopian elements, especially readers in the middle grade (8-12) age range. I thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review.

Although this is a book for young readers/middle schoolers, I absolutely loved it. What a fun, edge-of-my-seat read about 6 kids (three from 2023 and three from 1944) who can communicate to each other through a radio. As you can guess, exciting events unravel.

This takes place in New Jersey during WWII and felt like a thrilling blend of the movie Frequency and The Man in the High Castle. Looking forward to the next one in the series!

This is Ann Brashares’ best work. She, and her brother outshine the wonder that was the Sisterhood novels in a new book that is harrowing, important, and will be a great historical teacher for Gen Z and Gen Alpha. This will make a wonderful tv show and hopefully will be adapted soon! Highly recommended!

This story has notes of Artemis Fowl and The Infinity Ring series.

Time travel, friendship, and peril. What more could you need?

A set of children stumble upon an old radio and use it to contact three children who live in the past. Together they communicate and share information on what life is like-not realizing the effects it can have on their lives.

I love the concept for this book. It had me really excited while going into the story. This story does have alternating character point of view chapters. Which I always enjoyed as a child but I know isn't always a popular format. It ends on a cliff hanger and will keep children reading and interested for more!

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced e-book copy of "Westfallen" by Ann and Ben Brashares.

A mismatched trio of old friends find themselves together again after digging up a strange radio that lets them communicate with three kids who are the same age and live in the same town but 79 years in the past. What starts out as a weird but harmless connection leads to a much larger problem. The information they share with the kids in the past changes history. The biggest issue occurs when the recent group end up in an alternative America under Nazi rule with no clear path on how to undo their meddling with time. This is designed for middle school readers and features a diverse threesome of friends on both timelines and all of the coming-of-age angst. Great for kids that started with THE TIME WARP TRIO and want the dystopia found in adult titles like THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE. A cliffhanger ending means there are more adventures to come. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

I usually like books and stories set in alternate realities, but this novel was a bit of a disappointment. Two sets of three kids, one in 1944 and one in 2024, find a way to communicate with one another through a magic shed in the garden. Pretty soon, they discover that their chat has changed history, and that the US fell to Nazi Germany in WWII. Now they have to fix it. None of the characters are particularly interesting or well-crafted, there's a deus ex machina at the end, and of course at the end not everything is back to normal--ya gotta be able to sell a sequel, right? Ugh. Although this is listed as for middle-schoolers (perhaps because it deals with the Holocaust? although it's very coy about it), it seems like it's for a younger audience, and includes a lot of crass and crude humor and behavior on the parts of the kids.

*Warning! Upon finishing this book, you will experience an urgent desire to read more historical fiction!*
Six kids, three from 2023, three from 1944. They unexpectedly make contact with each other across the decades, after discovering a radio that appears to be broken at first glance. When a cardinal rule of time-travel is broken (“don’t tell what you know about the future”), it puts literally the entire world in danger of being ruled by Nazi Germany forever. Because when time-travel rules are ignored, sometimes the bad guys win…
Great introduction to history for middle-grade readers! If this had been released when I was a kid, I would have devoured it, more than once! As an adult, I found it difficult to put down!
My only complaint is that two of the characters, both boys, have names that begin with L, Lawrence and Lukas. I found it a bit difficult to keep them straight while reading. Just a small annoyance; I really enjoyed this book. Can’t wait for the next one in the series!
*I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.*

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, because alternate history/time travel plots can (naturally) go multiple ways. But I was not disappointed in the least - far from it!

The story is told from alternating viewpoints, as kids from 1944 and 2023 end up communicating with each other until a terrible thing happens - they inadvertently change the past, and (as demonstrated in Back to the Future), the future too. Their desperate struggle to fix the mistake raced me to the end.

I'm not at all the target audience for this book (sadly, a few years too old), but as a a series starter it's a doozy. Works well as a standalone, so don't feel like you'll be suckered into yet another one of those never-ending series, but I'll be watching for the next one! My middle-grader will just have to wait for me to read it first...

A fun and interesting approach to a time travel/alternative history book! I loved how the unintended consequences of small changes was addressed, as well as the friendships changed and mended over the course of the story.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy

Almost a 5, just not a fan of a sort-of cliffhanger ending…

I know it’s a series but I’m bad at waiting. Other than that, no notes. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long, long time.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jeepers! This book was so amazing! It has all the elements, and terms, that we know about Time Travel. The characters (both from 1944 and 2023) were very charming and funny, and the plot so well developed about what happens when one thing affects other and you change history . So, if you are into Time Travel stories (who isn't?), you're gonna love this one. Congratulations to the Brashares siblings, and thank you to Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing and NetGalley for sending this wonderful ARC.

I loved "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," so I was excited to check out this book from the same author. I saw that it was classified as middle-grade, but this book actually felt more YA to me (it's pretty intense!). The story is a wild one - three 12-year-olds in New Jersey end up connecting with three young people from 1944 via an old radio. But by talking with each other, they set off a butterfly effect with some seriously scary consequences. I loved how fast-paced this felt, and the two different perspectives (one from 2023 and one from 1944) worked really well. I was a little bummed with the cliffhanger ending, but I'm assuming that's because this is going to be a series. I'd actually recommend this one for any age just because of the imaginative and intriguing events.

thank you netgalley and simonkids for this book! i don’t usually make a habit of reading middle grade books but this is so well written informative and still age appropriate
i suggest you guys guve it a try for your kids
3.5 rounded up