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Throughout “A Handful of Time,” Kit Pearson based this story on the theory of time travel. I don’t believe traveling through time is very likely, but it makes an intriguing plot for a fiction, much like this one. Kit Pearson introduces her readers to Patricia Potter, a shy twelve year old girl who learns of her mother’s past and uses it to overcome obstacles and discover her identity.

While her parents work out the details of their divorce, Patricia Potter is sent to Alberta to visit her aunt and uncle at the lake. Within days, it is obvious that she doesn’t fit in with her cousins. She can’t paddle a canoe and has never built a fort or fished. Her Aunt Ginnie’s sympathy for Patricia continues to get Kelly, Trevor, Christie, and Peggy into trouble, even when Patricia would rather tend to the baby or help her aunt in the kitchen. Patricia’s isolation leads her to “La Petit,” a small cabin her family owns. As she explores her new hideout, she also discovers an old watch hidden beneath a loose floorboard. “For my dear Patricia, with fondest love from Wilfred,” is inscribed on the golden watch. The watch belongs to her grandmother. When Patricia winds this watch, she discovers that time in the present pauses and she is thrown back through time to the summer when her mother was twelve. Invisible in the past, Patricia follows her mother and uncles, through their daily lives. She endures her mother’s struggles with strict parents, unfair sibling treatment, and the persuasion to be “ladylike.” While living in two time periods, Patricia begins to realize how similar her and her mother really are, and this gives her time to sort out her feelings about the divorce. She uses the watch to escape the bullying of her cousins, and learns of her family’s history. Patricia’s secret teaches her about identity and self-discovery. After her grandmother’s visit, the watch unexpectedly breaks and is unable to wind Patricia into the past anymore. Acceptance is reached when Patricia spends more time with her cousins and they are surprised by her new fishing, canoe, and swimming potential, along with her ability to fulfill their household responsibilities. When summer concludes, reality sinks in and Patricia chooses to build her relationship with her mother, even if it means travelling to London. Her mother confesses to Patricia about the watch and how 35 years ago, she deliberately hid it beneath the floorboards. On her way back home to Ontario, they decide to stop in Calgary to visit Patricia’s grandmother and return her long lost watch.

“A Handful of Time,” was a book with one of the closest settings to my life. The book is carried out on a lake near Edmonton. I found this really shocking, as I’ve never read a book based in Alberta. The weather was the usual too, as it was warm a few days, and then cool and raining. Kit Pearson deals with identity and human ideals. When Patricia traveled into the past, she began to find herself. At the same time, she learned of her mother’s expectations and her struggle to be accepted by her grandmother’s ladylike ideals. I could also relate to Patricia’s decision at the end of the story because my parents are also divorced and my brothers and I live with my mom. I am so thankful that I wasn’t twelve when they divorced, and I never had to choose where or who to live with. Our mother made this choice for us over 12 years ago, and we grew accustomed to the custody routines.

Kit Pearson added excitement to the original summer at the lake story. I can’t imagine being Patricia who has never experienced camping at the lake. I love the lake and my summer would ultimately be ruined if I couldn’t to go. I wouldn’t recommend this book to older readers, as Kit Pearson wrote for an audience aged 8-16. I enjoyed this book, but I would probably enjoy a more mature book better.