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Backtracked Backtracked
by
Pedro De Alcantara (Goodreads Author)
Tommy Latrella is haunted by the ghost of his "perfect" older brother, who died on 9/11. Unable to live up to Jimmy's memory, Tommy spends countless hours riding the subway and "tagging" the stations with graffiti. But when Tommy plays a dangerous prank in the Times Square station, the subway turns on him, and Tommy is hurtled back in time.
As Tommy travels, he experiences...more
As Tommy travels, he experiences...more
ebook, 272 pages
Published
March 10th 2009
by Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers
(first published March 3rd 2009)
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"By the day I was born, on April 3, 1990, I had already lived several lives. But I didn't learn about them until Tuesday, February 28, 2006." >
Tommy Latrella can't do anything right. Scratch that -- he can't measure up to his older brother Jimmy. Jimmy was a young firefighter who died trying to rescue trapped people in the Twin Towers on 9/11, and he is the permanent family hero. Tommy, on the other hand, has a lot of potential and absolutely zero motivation to do anything other than ride the...more
Tommy Latrella can't do anything right. Scratch that -- he can't measure up to his older brother Jimmy. Jimmy was a young firefighter who died trying to rescue trapped people in the Twin Towers on 9/11, and he is the permanent family hero. Tommy, on the other hand, has a lot of potential and absolutely zero motivation to do anything other than ride the...more
Fifteen-year-old Tommy Latrella can't live up to the memory of his hero older brother, who died as a firefighter on 9/11. So Tommy becomes a graffiti artist and rides all over New York City on the subway, tagging as he goes. When he plays a dangerous prank in the Times Square station, the subway system transports him to1918, to the Lower East Side. He manages to get a job as a poor laborer digging new subway tunnels, and after months of that work Tommy is involved an historic subway crash that d...more
I give this a lot of credit for being extremely earnest in its love of the New York City transit system. Brooklyn teen Tommy Latrella is in a perpetual state of acting out in an effort to get out from under his big brother's (a fireman who was killed on 9/11) shadow. While cutting school, he stumbles into a time travel portal in Grand Central Terminal, and begins a series of time travel adventures through the Italian immigrant experience in New York City. This is a mostly fun book and Tommy deve...more
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A bit of suspense, time-travel and history.
While cutting school, Tommy stumbles into a time travel portal in Grand Central Terminal, and begins a series of time travel adventures through the Italian immigrant experience in New York City. As far as time travel goes this is a good book and Tommy develops as an interesting character. It's probably more interesting if you are very familiar with New York and like subway trivia, as it is fun to track all the action.
Read the book and see where he ends...more
While cutting school, Tommy stumbles into a time travel portal in Grand Central Terminal, and begins a series of time travel adventures through the Italian immigrant experience in New York City. As far as time travel goes this is a good book and Tommy develops as an interesting character. It's probably more interesting if you are very familiar with New York and like subway trivia, as it is fun to track all the action.
Read the book and see where he ends...more
Backtracked was a good book. I generally liked it, but I was a little confused by some of Laterella's(the main character) decisions. Also I was confused with who some of the characters were at some points. Laterella goes to three different time periods in this book, and he meets new people in each era, so there are a lot of characters . I would have liked for there to be an epilogue telling what happened to some of the characters that we met during any of the three eras. Overall it was a good bo...more
Backtracked by Pedro de Alcantara +2 of 5
Fiction, Historical Fiction, Time Travel
Tommy Latrella is failing classes and having family problems ever since his older brother died a hero in 9/11. He gets bumped back in time when Italian immigrants were at the bottom of the totem pole, then comes forward, and forward and finally arrives home wiser and ready to work. I liked this well enough to finish it because I liked Tommy.
Fiction, Historical Fiction, Time Travel
Tommy Latrella is failing classes and having family problems ever since his older brother died a hero in 9/11. He gets bumped back in time when Italian immigrants were at the bottom of the totem pole, then comes forward, and forward and finally arrives home wiser and ready to work. I liked this well enough to finish it because I liked Tommy.
YA selection. I didn't like the beginning. Tommy, the main character, is running haphazardly around, skipping school, riding the subway, and spreading graffiti through out his Brooklyn neighborhood. As weird as it may sound, the good part started with the time travel. Tommy ends up in other time periods in American history. I found the "historical fiction" section of this book most interesting.
Apr 02, 2009
Martha
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
5th-9th grade boys
Shelves:
middle-school,
2009
Picture an "older" Magic Treehouse book, or Dan Gutman baseball card trick through time.
Add to that a kid who lives in the shadow of his older brother killed 9/11.
And you get the Italian immigrant story in NY to boot.
Add to that a kid who lives in the shadow of his older brother killed 9/11.
And you get the Italian immigrant story in NY to boot.
I loved this book because it gave u different perspectives of history.... the main character had no control of what occurred but in the end it was all meant for something and he learned along the way.... I enjoyed every chapter
Read this children's book yesterday. I love time travel stories, but this one was kind of lame. He skips to various time periods in NYC... it's too much research and not nearly enough emotion.
Interesting premise, but this book would've been a lot better if I cared at all about the main character and the people he met instead of just wondering how/why he'd get back home.
a good YA book. a bit heavy on the "lesson" at the end, and maybe loses a little steam partway through.. but still fun.
I liked the story, but I did feel like there could have been a little more substance to it.
I love time travel and I'm from New York so I had lots of reasons to enjoy this book and I did enjoy it.
Great book. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Historical Fiction!
A wonderfully, historical take on the New York Subway System. Wasn't expecting to learn so much from the cover, as it portrayed a rather quick read, but instead it was packed with extremely informative paragraphs and unique perspectives on New York in the early 1900s that I definitely wasn't expecting. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone with an interest to learn more. :)
A fun and interesting read about a kid who travels through different eras of NYC history. One complaint I have, however, is that there wasn't enough of a sense of urgency of the kid wanting to go home in the beginning. Overall, it was an interesting look at NYC and its subway system as a character, but the human characters themselves weren't as real as they could have been.
Nov 11, 2009
Heather
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult-books-i-would-recommend
Actually, I really enjoyed this one. It might have been a bit predictable, but I enjoyed the flavor and the history.
WHAT I LIKED:
This is a different way to get young adults connected to history. I think it may hook some students.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
I suppose it wasn't that I didn't like something in the book itself; it's more like I don't really enjoy historical fiction.
This is a different way to get young adults connected to history. I think it may hook some students.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
I suppose it wasn't that I didn't like something in the book itself; it's more like I don't really enjoy historical fiction.
this book made me Ny homesick, but I am over it now :) But I really liked the history in this book. I enjoyed the time travel aspect. Overall, I would recommend this book!
Good book to recommend to a guy.. Good amt of suspense.. Time travel. history, etc.... On reflecting, I think I'll go back and increase my star number. :))
Young Adult -- Well-documented historical fiction, time travel twist. Early 20th century - WWII. Lessons to be learned.
Sep 02, 2009
Maggie
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
book-ive-read-this-year
I usually don't like time travel books,but i really liked it because it hooked me on the first page.
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My books include the children's novels "Befiddled" and "Backtracked" and works of non-fiction for adults, including "Indirect Procedures: A Musician's Guide to the Alexander Technique" and "The Alexander Technique: A Skill for Life" (published by Crowood). I travel the world giving seminars and master classes for all creative people. I'm currently finishing two new books -- a new novel for young r...more
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“Mud covered me from face to feet. I couldn’t straighten my body, however much I tried to.
But I was alive.
I was alive and I could do seventy push-ups in the mud with a freaking bazooka tied to my back.
”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
But I was alive.
I was alive and I could do seventy push-ups in the mud with a freaking bazooka tied to my back.
”
