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A Stitch In Time by Penelope Lively
This is a very fine book that adults will enjoy as much as young readers. It most certainly deserved being given the Whitbread award and is reminiscent of her earlier Carnegie Medal winner The Ghost of Thomas Kempe. As in the latter we have a child who is intensely imaginative, thinks about the problem of time and tends to be misunderstood by parents. But Maria in A Stitch In Time is more quietly sensitive and introspective than James. She thinks more deeply about life and is more aware of the darkness it may hold.
While the book certainly has some excellent characterisation and makes effective use of flashes of gentle humour, what remain in the mind are those beautiful meditative sequences with a haunting sense of wonder when Maria finds herself slipping suddenly back into time.
As much as I liked her previous Carnegie Medal winner, I think this book is superior and a masterpiece of its type.
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