Saving Lucas Biggs is a collaborative effort between Marisa de los Santos and David Teague which follows the adventures of Margaret, a teenage girl who tries to deliver Margaret’s father from a wrongful conviction of murder. Rather than accomplish this through mundane means such as appeals and activism, Margaret has an extra method of dealing with such a problem: time travel.

This book has several good qualities. It depicts historic events with which readers, especially the young readers who are its target audience, may not be familiar. The way it deals with the subject of time travel is more believable than some descriptions of that ability, if the words “time travel” and “believable” can be used in the same sentence. Finally, the style of writing is very beautiful, and in some places it seems almost lyrical, even though it is prose. The authors choose unusual words and craft them into stylish sentences.

However, this book is difficult to wade through. The narrative drags in some places, and even the fine prose can’t make up for this slow pacing of the story. The main plot itself is not nearly as interesting as the historical events that provide its background. In addition, the story is confusing in some places and, while it has a refreshingly positive message, this message is likely to be lost on the readers of its target audience. This book is likely to be more popular with literature and reading teachers than with the young audience for which it was written.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  2 religious exclamations.

Violence/Gore:  Characters hit each other playfully a few times; a verbal threat; a character sees brief flashes of historical violence, but none are graphic; report of death threats, vandalism, attempted murder, and past violence; a few reports of murder and arson; report of a suicide; report of a massacre; characters injure themselves mildly while mountain climbing; a child sustains a minor shock when he intentionally sticks a metal hanger into an electric socket (written in such a way that children may read it and think that this is less dangerous than it actually is); a schoolyard fight results in no major injury; animals are killed for food; a workplace accident results in broken back and other bones; scene in which several unarmed characters are shot, property is destroyed, and men, women, and children are killed and characters lose body parts to gunfire; a scene in which one character is stabbed in the throat and another is bludgeoned with a heavy object, resulting in a death; an explosion with no major injury; a character tries to strangle another.

Sex/Nudity:  Characters hold hands; character puts a comforting arm around one of another gender; characters joke about the size of a female character’s padded costume butt; characters of the opposite gender blush and behave awkwardly a few times.

Mature Subject Matter:

Poverty, starvation, suicide (mention), corporate and government corruption, capital punishment, wrongful conviction, bullying, death (family member), separation from family.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adult characters produce and drink moonshine; a character is drunk; cigarettes are mentioned.