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52nd out of 333 books
—
400 voters
Charlotte Sometimes (Aviary Hall #3)
A time-travel story that is both a poignant exploration of human identity and an absorbing tale of suspense.
It's natural to feel a little out of place when you're the new girl, but when Charlotte Makepeace wakes up after her first night at boarding school, she's baffled: everyone thinks she's a girl called Clare Mobley, and even more shockingly, it seems she has traveled f...more
It's natural to feel a little out of place when you're the new girl, but when Charlotte Makepeace wakes up after her first night at boarding school, she's baffled: everyone thinks she's a girl called Clare Mobley, and even more shockingly, it seems she has traveled f...more
Hardcover, 190 pages
Published
February 20th 2007
by NYR Children's Collection
(first published 1969)
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2,129)
Jan 15, 2012
Abigail
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of Time-Slip Novels, ala "Tom's Midnight Garden"
Recommended to Abigail by:
CLM
Review Temporarily Removed.
Nov 09, 2011
Lisa Vegan
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of historical fiction, time travel, speculative fiction, boarding school stories
Great fun! I’d have adored this when I was 9, 10, 11. My 10 year old self gives this 5 full stars. If I wasn’t so in touch with my 10 year old self, I might have given this only 4 stars, but it’s a completely delightful and smart story.
It’s very suspenseful. It’s a fun meld of speculative fiction and historical fiction. Some aspects are ingenious. It was fun to try to figure out who one particular character was.
Charlotte is a wonderful character, and I was particularly fond of Emily. The mostly...more
It’s very suspenseful. It’s a fun meld of speculative fiction and historical fiction. Some aspects are ingenious. It was fun to try to figure out who one particular character was.
Charlotte is a wonderful character, and I was particularly fond of Emily. The mostly...more
13 likes · like · see review
Jan 20, 2012
Kathryn
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
childrens-picture-books,
school-stories
4.5 STARS
Penelope Farmer is an author who captured "the mysterious emotions of children, their uneasy relationships, and the sometimes terrifying awareness of their encompassing worlds." -- Ruth Hill Viguers, Horn Book.
"Charlotte Sometimes" is an intensely thoughtful, emotional story about Charlotte Makepeace, a young teenager attending boarding school in about 1950 in the English countryside. When she falls asleep in her new dormitory, in a strange bed with wheels, she awakens to find herself i...more
Penelope Farmer is an author who captured "the mysterious emotions of children, their uneasy relationships, and the sometimes terrifying awareness of their encompassing worlds." -- Ruth Hill Viguers, Horn Book.
"Charlotte Sometimes" is an intensely thoughtful, emotional story about Charlotte Makepeace, a young teenager attending boarding school in about 1950 in the English countryside. When she falls asleep in her new dormitory, in a strange bed with wheels, she awakens to find herself i...more
8 likes · like · see review
Charlotte Sometimes is a wistful, fascinating blend of boarding school story and time travel fantasy. When Charlotte wakes up from her first night at boarding school, she finds that she has been magically transported back into the past, where everyone thinks she's a girl called Clare, attending the same school forty years earlier. When she wakes up the next morning, she's back in her own time, but she soon realizes that she slips back and forth every night, spending every other day as Clare.
Far...more
Far...more
Oct 19, 2008
kate
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone wanting to think.
Recommended to kate by:
Charlotte Sometimes- singer
It astonished me when I'd finished reading that this novel was created and meant for children. I've known children, and perhaps was myself, capable of understanding this novel and appreciating it, but I would venture that it is hardly the norm.
The identity crisis and the challenges involved in this story line are intricate and carefully laid out. I never thought of it as a time-travel book. It's not about time travel at all. It's about knowing who you are, wherever you are, in whatever circumst...more
The identity crisis and the challenges involved in this story line are intricate and carefully laid out. I never thought of it as a time-travel book. It's not about time travel at all. It's about knowing who you are, wherever you are, in whatever circumst...more
Mar 30, 2008
Cyn Coons
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
classic-childrens-literature
I will fully admit that I didn't discover this book in the traditional way.
I have to admit to being a HUGE fan of the Cure. Yup. That's 80's quasi-gothy band, lead by Robert Smith. What can I say, I've always liked boys in makeup.
One of my favorite songs by the Cure was always Charlotte Sometimes. I didn't have a clue that the song title was taken from a book, and that lines from the book were used in the song, as well as in the song The Empty World (She talked about the armies, that marched ins...more
I have to admit to being a HUGE fan of the Cure. Yup. That's 80's quasi-gothy band, lead by Robert Smith. What can I say, I've always liked boys in makeup.
One of my favorite songs by the Cure was always Charlotte Sometimes. I didn't have a clue that the song title was taken from a book, and that lines from the book were used in the song, as well as in the song The Empty World (She talked about the armies, that marched ins...more
9 likes · like · see review
Ostensibly a time-travel book, this little gem is actually more about figuring out who one really is. Lots of interesting historical detail thrown in besides. And it's got the perennial hook of boarding school to add to the allure. The characters rang true- especially the confusion and dismay and mustering of wits. Recommended.
I read this over the summer and somehow missed reviewing it. It was a perfect book to read by the pool.
I read this over the summer and somehow missed reviewing it. It was a perfect book to read by the pool.
2 likes · like · see review
This is an old favorite, one which I read as a child and rediscovered as an adult. It's a time travel fantasy, in which two girls at the same boarding school, one in 1918 and one in the present day (which was 1960 something---it's an old book) switch places. From a science fictional perspective, the book is flawed, not answering questions about how or why the transfer takes place. That simply isn't the point. However, by exploring the outcomes of their switching places---the bizarre relationship...more
After Charlotte's first night at her new boarding school, she wakes up in the same room, but with different roommates. Moreover, these different roommates don't call her "Charlotte," but "Clare." Charlotte is totally confused and can't figure out what has happened. After a while, she realizes she's travelled back in time to World War I, and that the real Clare has travelled forward to Charlotte's time. Once they realize this, Charlotte and Clare devise a way to correspond with each other across...more
Charlotte sometimes, Clare sometimes. This is my first book from the NYRB Children's Collection, and by golly, will I be greedily returning for more! Fellow fans be aware that there are TWO other out-of-print books about the Makepeace sisters - The Summer Birds, 1962 and Emma in Winter, 1966. I now strive to get hold of and devour them... do you hear me? NYRB? Fidra? Somebody?
It is tempting to classify this as a time-travel story, but it is really about the search for one's identity. On her firs...more
It is tempting to classify this as a time-travel story, but it is really about the search for one's identity. On her firs...more
I downloaded this onto the Kindle when on holiday in Byron Bay after my daughter Frederique and I read another timeslip book Cicada Summer by Kate Constable. I read this myself (and own it in paperback) though I think I encountered it for the first time as an older teen. As I read I wondered if it would be too complex to hold Frederique's attention but she loved it. She wept when [redacted] and gasped at the letter from [redacted].
The themes of identity were quite resonant for her. We actually...more
The themes of identity were quite resonant for her. We actually...more
The setting opens in late 1940s England. 12-year-old Charlotte Makepeace has been sent to boarding school, where nothing is familiar and she knows no one. Even so, when Charlotte wakes up that first morning, she is sure that there hadn't been a cedar tree outside the bedroom window, though there is one there now. And the girls in her room aren't the same girls who laid down in the beds next to her the night before.
Charlotte soon discovers that, by some mystery, she has exchanged places with a g...more
Charlotte soon discovers that, by some mystery, she has exchanged places with a g...more
Charlotte, new student at a boarding school, has one of those days we've all had when we're new somewhere. Exhausted, nervy, confused, she goes to bed and wakes up in the same school forty years earlier. Turns out she's somehow swapped places with a schoolgirl of that time - Clare - and somehow they keep shifting places ...
I'm rubbish at writing synopses so I apologise for the fact that the above sounds distinctly bald. Charlotte Sometimes really isn't. It reminded me of Adele Geras' Egerton Hal...more
It's been a busy month, and I haven't gotten to do all the reading I would've liked. This weekend, I took a break from the grown-up world with a trip to Nacogdoches and this sweet young adult book from 1969, Charlotte Sometimes.
Charlotte is the kind of resourceful, realistic heroine I would've loved as a twelve-year-old--heck, I loved her as a 30-year-old. Being on the beach,under a giant umbrella, knocking back whiskey and Coke made it even easier to get into the story of two little girls who...more
Charlotte is the kind of resourceful, realistic heroine I would've loved as a twelve-year-old--heck, I loved her as a 30-year-old. Being on the beach,under a giant umbrella, knocking back whiskey and Coke made it even easier to get into the story of two little girls who...more
I read about Charlotte Sometimes on the Chicklit message boards, and it sounded interesting; and then finding out that Robert Smith had liked it enough to write a song about it cinched the deal and I ordered myself a copy. The book tells the story of Charlotte, a new girl at a boarding school, who wakes up one morning to find a huge tree outside her bedroom window where the day before there had been none. And more disconcertingly, the girl in the bed next to her is calling her "Clare." Charlotte...more
I first came across this book as an adult and being a fan of school stories I thought it would be similar to others of the genre. So it was a surprise - a pleasant one - to find out it was about much more than the usual fun on the playing fields and in the dorm kind of thing. The time-travel is central to the plot, of course, but it's the characters of the main players that are the important thing, IMO.
There's a certain eeriness to this book, not surprising given its subject matter,but for thos...more
There's a certain eeriness to this book, not surprising given its subject matter,but for thos...more
How could I resist a book with such a beautiful cover and a name that The Cure stole for one of its songs? The book itself is a rather low-key affair for a children's book, though it does contain some exciting happenings. But more than an adventure book, it's a thinking book that explores the ideas of war, identity, appearances vs. reality, time and history. I found the ending to be rather moving too, and I'll continue to think fondly of some of the characters and wonder about them. One thing I...more
Reread. I last read this when I was much younger, and mostly what I remember is that I found it unsettling and strange. For once, my memory is accurate. This is nominally a time travel story, but perhaps because of time’s inexorable march, the English girls’ boarding school in the “modern” ’50s doesn’t seem all that different to someone reading in 2008 (or 199-whatever) from the English girls’ boarding school in the “past” of 1918. Yes, there’s a war going on in the latter, and that ends up play...more
When Charlotte wakes up after her first night at boarding school, she discovers she's not quite the same in the morning...and neither is anyone else. In fact, Charlotte is somebody else entirely. Due to a magical phenomenon, skillfully left unexplained, she has swapped places with a girl named Clare who lived fifty or so years before. Switching back every other day, the two girls leave each other notes to help ease their confusion. Then one day, Clare and her sister are moved out of the boarding...more
Don't let The Cure music video fool you! I picked up Charlotte Sometimes expecting it to be a creepy mixed-identity ghost story along the lines of Avi or Joan Aiken and instead read something I can only describe as "pleasant." Granted, I have been having difficulty processing everything I've been reading lately, so maybe I missed out on something.
The writing is often times very pretty, and the story kind of made me want to spend time sleeping over at a British all girl's boarding school (as a k...more
The writing is often times very pretty, and the story kind of made me want to spend time sleeping over at a British all girl's boarding school (as a k...more
I’ve recently read “Charlotte Sometimes” if for no other reason than to compare The Cure lyrics of their classic song Charlotte Sometimes to parts of the children’s fantasy. This is what I learned and it’s very interesting. ***Spoiler Alter***
All the faces, All the voices blur
Change to one face, Change to one voice
First sentence: By bedtime all the faces, the voices, had blurred for Charlotte to one face, one voice.
Prepare yourself for bed
Second sentence: She prepared herself for bed . . . .
The...more
All the faces, All the voices blur
Change to one face, Change to one voice
First sentence: By bedtime all the faces, the voices, had blurred for Charlotte to one face, one voice.
Prepare yourself for bed
Second sentence: She prepared herself for bed . . . .
The...more
On her first day at boarding school Charlotte Makepeace is shown to the room she will be sharing with four other girls. The room has five black iron bedsteads, all identical except for the one Charlotte chooses, which isn't on casters like the others, but has "little wheels with ornamented spokes".
After an ordinary, if stressful, first day Charlotte falls asleep in her iron bedstead, but awakens in what seems to be a different world. Somehow in the night she has changed places with Clare Moby, a...more
After an ordinary, if stressful, first day Charlotte falls asleep in her iron bedstead, but awakens in what seems to be a different world. Somehow in the night she has changed places with Clare Moby, a...more
oh! i loved reading this book when i was a young teenager.....dunno where i've placed it though but the main plot is that this character keeps time travelling due to this old creeky bed that she sleeps in.I i think the whole plot is cleverly created to keep you hooked until the last page.
I had never heard of this book until I came across the singer who goes by the name Charlotte Sometimes. In reading her bio, I learned that she took the name from this book that she had read as a child. So, I dug it up at the library and read it out of curiosity. I think this story is a clever way of posing the question: Could you still be yourself even when the people around you don't recognize you for who you know you are?
As someone who has felt misunderstood many times in my life, I could defi...more
As someone who has felt misunderstood many times in my life, I could defi...more
I came across this book in a very odd way. I have always been a big fan of The Cure and the song Charlotte Sometimes has always held intrigue for me. After many, many years of wondering what the song was about, I finally looked it up and found out that the song was inspired by the book of the same name, Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer. The book tells the story of Charlotte, a young girl who recently entered boarding school and begins changing places with another girl (Clare) who lived ove...more
Sep 15, 2008
Cera
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
fans of time travel
Recommended to Cera by:
Jo Walton, I think
This sensitive exploration of identity and children's understanding of history is one of my favourite children's books, although I admit I didn't read it until I was an adult.
A friend recommended this book to me. I was looking for a time travel book. Originally written in 1985 (I believe). The style of writing is a bit choppy. There are lots of adverbs and lots of telling. At the same time though there is some wonderful description and interesting dialogue. I actually prefer her dialogue over description. It moves the story forward at a faster, crisper pace, that also relays information that we need to know, in an interesting/appealing way.
The time travel aspect star...more
The time travel aspect star...more
When I first heard the song which shares the title of this book by the 80's pop band, The Cure, I was enthralled. Astonishment ensued when I found out that the band had written the song about a story.
I had to order the book as it is no longer in print and paid a pretty penny for something I figured would be nothing more than a keepsake for my love of The Cure. From the first page it became impossible to put the book down.
I read it three times since I bought it and every time I try to figure...more
I had to order the book as it is no longer in print and paid a pretty penny for something I figured would be nothing more than a keepsake for my love of The Cure. From the first page it became impossible to put the book down.
I read it three times since I bought it and every time I try to figure...more
1 like · like · see review
I know I read this book many years ago, but couldn't remember how I'd felt about it or why I kept it. It is a time travel tale, of two girls who sleep in the same bed at a school forty years apart, and switch places. Charlotte goes to 1918, and Clare goes to 1958. The story is Charlotte's, so we never "see" Clare. I have to say I didn't love the book. Not a lot happened, and 1918 didn't seem different enough to Charlotte (I suppose) for her to mark many of the differences. I found myself wonderi...more
I just finished reading this book with my girls. We all enjoyed this story of Charlotte Makepeace, who wakes up after her first night at boarding school to find she has traveled back in time 40 years to the year 1918 and everyone thinks she is someone named Clare Mobley. In the months to follow, Charlotte wakes alternately in her own time and in Clare's. There comes a point in the book where "something" changes and she stays in the past quite some time instead of changing each night, and is unsu...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's The Name o...: children or YA - Girl falls asleep and wakes up in past (during WWI) - read in 1960s or 70s [s] | 4 | 21 | Sep 15, 2012 10:47am | |
| A Thrilling Term ...: Charlotte Sometimes (January 2012) | 55 | 39 | Feb 14, 2012 09:30am | |
| Adult reader? | 3 | 32 | Dec 19, 2011 08:37pm |
British children's author Penelope Farmer was born in 1939, in Westerham, Kent, the daughter of Hugh Robert MacDonald and Penelope Boothby Farmer. She published her first book, The China People, in 1960, going on to use one of the longer stories originally intended for that collection as the basis of her first novel, The Summer Birds, which received a Carnegie commendation.
More about Penelope Farmer...
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“Charlotte was used to all the marks of war: the shabbiness of things, bad food, shop queues, posters about the war effort, people with worried faces, people dressed in black. She was used to seeing the wounded men from the hospital with their bright blue uniforms and bright red ties, the colours, she thought, if not the clothes of Arthur's soldiers. Such things did not disturb her, and the war seemed quite remote. But this disturbed her, the grotesque kind of circus that came now. It did not seem remote at all, nor did it fit with her vague ideas of war gained from those books of Arthur's she had read, with their flags and glory and brave drummer boys. How could you dare to become a soldier, knowing that you might end like this? There were men like clowns with white heads, white arms, white legs, men with crutches, slings, and bloodied bandages, and all so distressingly like men you would expect to see walking down the street, two armed, two legged, in hats instead of bandages and suits of black not battered khaki. Some came on stretchers borne by whole and ordinary men, some hobbled and leaned on whole ordinary arms. Most had mud dried thick across their clothes, and all came from the dark station's mouth with the spewings of trains behind, the clankings, thumpings, grindings, the sounds like great devils taking in breaths and blowing them out again.”
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2 people liked it
“Of course I'm not going to look through the keyhole. That's something only servants do. I'm going to hide in the bay window.”
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1 person liked it
More quotes…
Jan 19, 2012 11:56am
Thanks, Kathryn! I've really got to get myself together, and go...more
Jan 19, 2012 02:45pm