On a stormy afternoon three friends discover a radio buried in their backyard. The biggest surprise turns out to be who they contact on the radio - three friends living in their neighborhood - in 1944. While the 1944 friends are desperate to find out the outcome to World War II, but their questions have a very unexpected consequence - they change the outcome of the second World War.

When the modern-day friends wake up in a United States ruled by Nazis, they begin a desperate race to undo this horrendous consequence and once again defeat the Nazis.

Wow! What a unique and fast-paced story. I couldn't put WESTFALLEN down. The characters were easily likeable, and it really made me think about what I would do in their situation. I loved the lessons they learned along the way, and loved the connections between the characters. I'm assuming this will be a series based on the ending of the book and I can't wait to read the next adventure!

Three kids from 2023 unexpectedly make contact with three kids from 1944 through an old radio saved from the trash. The 2023 kids accidently created an alternate reality after telling the 1944 kids a little too much. They remember the butterfly effect and try to do everything they can reset the timeline.

I loved this alternate history story and I know so many students who will love it too! It is a fun story about how things could've turned out and also a great reminder of the impact our daily choices have on the world around us.

Zeus has died. He’s a pet gerbil shared by three one time best friends; Henry, Frances and Lukas. Henry decides to bury Zeus in his backyard near the shed and invites the other two to the funeral. Digging the grave, they unearth an old homemade radio which they carry into the shed. Fiddling around with it they’re shocked when they find out they can talk to three other kids; Alice, Lawrence and Artie. They soon figure out that they’re communicating with the past. Henry and his friends live in 2023 Millerton, NJ and Alice and company live in the 1944 version of Millerton. They screw up and alter the time line and they’re in a race to correct their mistakes before it’s too late.
This is the first book of a planned trilogy for middle grade readers and up. It’s an alternate history thriller with a diverse cast of characters. I liked how much they cared about each other and how well they worked together to try and make things right. It’s a timely story considering the rise in anti-semitism and ongoing racism. It’s an exciting page turner that keeps the reader engaged and the ending sets up the next installment perfectly. 4.25 stars

The number one rule with time travel or communicating through time is to make sure no one from the future does anything to affect the past. Apparently, the characters from this book aren’t aware of that, making them end up in a situation where Nazi Germany won the war.

I liked the gradual build the book had. At first, it seemed like it might just be about friends that grew apart. Then it’s about mysterious communication, and you slowly discover who they’re communicating with and why it’s remarkable. And then you end up in Nazi America. That gives the weightiness of some of the topics to build up without being overwhelming all at once. With a modern-day Nazi regime being a pretty heavy topic, especially for a middle-grade book, the intriguing build gives time and room to adjust to what’s happening. However, I could see the build being a drag for some readers if they aren’t as intrigued by the time travel experiments because it takes some time to get going.

A common trope in time travel media is how change in the past can affect the future, and this book has many interesting interpretations of that. The main characters actively do experiments to try to figure out how time travel works. The ways the kids could communicate through time and experiment were intriguing and unique.

I thought six characters was a lot for a book of this size. It’s hard to get to know each character and keep track of which kid is a part of which group. After reading the book, I don't think I could identify any of the characters with the correct names in a lineup. There are so few hints about the character’s families, how they might be related or who might influence things, making the characters hard to identify with or tell apart. I think some of the characters may specifically have been put in so that their identities in a world ruled by Nazis could be explored better, not because they were good stand-alone characters. We needed a Jewish kid and a Black kid, but it seems like maybe we didn’t need those kids to be that developed. I hope their personalities and backgrounds get a lot more expansion in future books.

The book ends in a cliffhanger. I usually hate that, but I didn’t mind it too much in this case. A lot of things felt wrapped up, so it felt like a natural hook for the next book rather than the kind of cliffhanger that is particularly annoying. I will likely pick up the next book not just because of the ending but because I’m curious about where it will go, and I enjoyed this book.

This is an intriguing book for people interested in history and time travel -- or for those who have morbid curiosity about a modern world under Nazi control.

I love the concept of the book, and it gradually sucked me in until I couldn't put it down. Fans of historical fiction, especially centered around WW2, will enjoy the book. I was disappointed to realize it's part of a series, but I will, of course, be reading the next installation as soon as it comes out.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Henry, Frances, and Lukas are neighbors, and used to be best friends. But in middle school, things can change fast—Frances has become an emo art-girl, Lukas has gone full sports bro, and Henry has gone sort of nowhere. But when a dead gerbil brings them together again, the three ex-friends make an impossible discovery: a radio buried in Henry’s backyard that allows them to talk to another group of kids in the same town…on the same street…in the same backyard…seventy-nine years in the past. The novel starts with a ham radio that Alice, Lawrence, and Artie fool around with in 1944. Henry, Frances, and Lukas find it in 2023. It’s late April, and the 1944 kids worry about loved ones in can’t ombat, while the 2023 kids study the war in school. It seems impossible that the radio allows the kids to communicate across time. Strangely enough it doesn’t take long before they share information which changes history. Can the six kids work across a 79-year divide to prevent the U.S.A. from becoming the Nazi-controlled dystopia of Westfallen?

This thriller was well-paced between times that kept the pages turning for me. Alice’s and Henry’s dual first-person narration zooms in on the adventure. I did find myself uncomfortable with the summary consideration paid to the real-life fates of European Jews and disabled people. The cliffhanger ending of this novel has me wondering if there will be a sequel to this book.

Westfallen is a book that will intrigue middle school readers with its great cast of characters and exploration of what would happen if you changed history.

What would you say to people who were living far in the past or far in the future if you had a chance to talk to them? Can you imagine what kind of consequences your conversations might have? That's the premise for this new book "Westfallen". Henry, Frances, and Lukas are starting middle school in 2023 and although they were close friends in elementary school, they are traveling in different circles now. During a funeral for a hamster, the three dig up an old radio and find that it still works. They can hear other kids talking and it turns out the other kids are in their town, but in 1944. Their conversations have far reaching consequences and then they wonder if it's possible to undo what they've done. This is a super fun story to read with big themes of family and courage, societal change, taking chances and problem solving. I think the kids are going to love this one.

DNF at 20%. I could not get through this novel, and neither could my younger middle-grade child when I tried to read it out loud to him. The alternate-history premise was intriguing, but the opening chapters were so slow - and so confusing to a child without a solid historical grounding - that neither of us had any desire to continue. The relationships between the children in each group were interesting, and reminiscent of Ann Brashares' Traveling Pants novels, so maybe a slightly older cohort would enjoy this.

Time travel and historical fiction mix in this book that explores what would have happened if Hitler had won World War II. Ultimately this is a book about kids working together to save the world. An interesting book that should appeal to fans of either historical fiction on time travel.

Six middle schoolers discover they have the ability to talk through time and begin sharing information about their respective eras. Despite their best intentions, everything in the present day gets flipped upside down and the kids scramble to change everything back so life can return to normal. Sibling authors Ann Brasheres and Ben Brasheres pull out all the stops in a believable, high-octane middle grade thriller that will leave readers impatient for the sequel of Westfallen.

In small-town New Jersey in 2023, Henry misses the old days with his best friends, Frances and Lukas. They’ve known each other since elementary school and even rescued the class’s pet gerbil, Zeus, together when everyone else decided they wanted a different animal. Zeus kept the kids bonded for a while, but ever since middle school has started nothing is the same. Frances is all into art, and Lukas is always at baseball practice. Sure, he’s going to be a baseball star, but still. Henry misses both friends.

The day Henry discovers Zeus is dead is terrible, but he still figures Lukas and Frances will want to participate in the funeral. As the kids get together and try not to feel super awkward—even though everything is super awkward—they turn their attention to burying Zeus. When they start digging, they come across a weird box in the ground. Turns out it’s an old radio, and when the friends start fiddling with it they get the shock of their lives.

In the same town in 1944, Alice and Lawrence are best friends and doing the best they can to support the war effort by gathering scrap metal and growing vegetables in their victory gardens. They also try to include their third friend, Artie, as much as possible even though Artie’s father doesn’t like him to play with them. Lawrence’s race makes it tricky for the kids to get together, but they find ways to keep their friendship intact.

Alice’s brother built a radio before shipping out to Europe to fight the Nazis. He did it as a hobby, but Alice keeps the radio as a positive sign that he’ll make it home safe and sound. One day, Alice, Lawrence, and Artie are in the shed behind Alice’s house examining the radio when they turn it on and hear voices.

In a flurry of excitement and questions, the kids in 1944 discover they can talk to the trio in 2023. At first Alice, Artie, and Lawrence want to know whether the Allies win and when their loved ones might come home. As much as Henry, Lukas, and Frances want to tell them, they’ve heard and read enough about what the butterfly effect might do and refuse to reveal anything.

Instead, the kids talk about what their town looks like in their respective decades. When they realize there’s been a change to the town in the modern day, the kids try to fix it. How bad could it be, they think. When they discover the answer, though, they realize that even changing the little things can have a major effect on the big things, especially when Henry, Frances, and Lukas wake up in a Nazi version of America. Now the kids are fighting their circumstances, each other, and time to change everything back to the way it used to be. If they don’t, they realize, they’ll soon forget a world where America was the home of the free and brave.

Authors Ann Brasheres and Ben Brasheres take a weighty topic—an alternate outcome to World War II—and break it down enough for members of their target audience to accept, digest, and discuss. The book offers a realistic look at how a group of sixth graders might perceive time travel and what they would do once they’ve discovered it. Although the novel is told in alternating points of view between only Henry and Alice, the authors give all six tweens enough depth and heart that readers will find themselves worrying about all of them. The authors have done a commendable job of taking conditions in Nazi Germany and making them feel relatable and contemporary.

Sure to be a robust addition to any social sciences class in schools everywhere, the book’s exciting premise offers the perfect opening to the proposed trilogy. The only complaint readers will have of this one is that they have to wait an entire year to find out what happens next with the two trios of kids. This book should be mandatory reading for all middle schoolers, and it would be fantastic as a side-by-side reading project for students and adults alike.

First off thank you to Ann and Ben Brashares for giving me this year's first (and at this point possibly only) 5 star novel. I am a sucker for all things time travel, alternate realities and history so it immediately had me from the description.
This was quite the ride and so much fun despite the ever-looming idea of what could have been. It's a great melding of lighthearted middle grade with the seriousness of both a history lesson and so much more.
This is a book that is impossible to put down, and even when you do it'll leave you wanting to pick it back up and definitely looking forward to the next installment.

Westfallen explores the horrifying possibility of what life would be like if the Nazis had triumphed in World War II. Using trios of 12-year-olds in 1944 and 2023 who are mysteriously able to talk through history, the authors show the kids accidentally creating this alternate reality and then trying to set it right again. We are clearly set up for a sequel with a cliffhanger ending and little details throughout that seem like they will come into play in a later book.

Many of my students love historical fiction (especially World War II), but science fiction is a harder sell in my middle-grade classroom. This might be the book that gets them hooked, as long as they can keep track of which characters are in which time period since the chapters switch back and forth. The plot is gripping, making this a page-turner once you realize how badly things might turn out.

I hope this book is a success as my readers will be asking when the next one comes out the moment they finish the final page. Other teachers looking for clean, safe reads for their shelves should know that there are no content warnings for this one. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC provided in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Two trio of tweens, one group in 1944 and the other in 2023. Henry, Frances, & Lucas, former best friends gather in Henry’s backyard to bury their pet gerbil. While digging the hole, they find a radio that allows them to talk to Alice, Lawrence, and Artie in 1944. They initially talk about kid things, like candy. The 1944 kids want to know what the future is like – are there flying cars? The biggest question the 1944 kids have is about the war. Henry is aware of the “butterfly effect,” but how much harm could they do by saving a beloved candy store? You can guess where this is going – one change causes another to the point where 2023 is no longer recognizable. Will they be able to put things back the way they’re supposed to be?

I really enjoyed this book! Sometimes the time switching was difficult to follow and was slow in some areas but it works. It reminded me of the movie Frequency. I rarely say this but I think this will make a great movie. Apparently, this is book 1, which I did not know when I started reading. Definitely recommend for grade 4 and up.
#Westfallen #NetGalley

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Historical Fiction, Time Travel, Magical Realism, Thriller
Audience: Upper middle grade - young ya
Content: Prejudice and racism

Wow! WESTFALLEN is an exciting ride.

I love how it's easy to distinguish between the kids in the 1940s and present day. Though, I will add the modern day kids use the Lord's name and that will be off-putting for some audiences.

This is such an approachable way to talk about WWII and racism, making it relatable because of the time travel twist. I also loved how it's object not people that time travel.

One of the most chilling moments is when the kids realize that Westfallen is revealing the dark side that people have inside. I can see how a classroom could use this novel to start a discussion.

Will I read the next one? ABSOLUTELY!

Happy reading!

It’s rare for me to find a book that hasn’t been done already. It gets boring. This book was something new and I was hooked from the get-go.

Three kids in 2023 find an old radio buried in the yard. Three kids in 1944 rescue the same radio from the trash heap. Both groups turn on the radio and bingo. Contact. At first, both groups think they are talking to kids in their same existence, but it doesn’t take long for them to figure out this is a parallel-universe-across-time situation. Same town. Same neighborhood. Same backyard shed even.

But, everything is not going to be EXACTLY the same. The beloved candy shop from 1944 is gone. With a little help from Google, the 2023 kids inform the 1944 kids that it burned down. The 1944 kids decide to prevent the fire, which unleashes a whole slew of other problems. One being that a classmate of the 2023 kids is never born. The 1944 kids must now commit arson to restore the original future.

The problems keep getting bigger. Way bigger. As in catastrophic. One of the 2023 kids mentions the D-day invasion that will ultimately lead to the allies winning WW2. One of the 1944 kids mentions this to his father who mentions it to a German spy. And BAM! D-day is thwarted. The Germans beat the Americans. The 2023 America, now called Westfallen, is under Nazi rule.

One of the three 2023 kids in this alternate future is Jewish, which kicks it into high gear. The one who used to be a popular kid is now the social outcast. His friends must try to protect him from the Nazis while also working to undo this massive historical catastrophe. If you wanted more than just a story, something to sink your teeth into, there’s much to ponder. Such as whether it’s worth looking back and wishing for a different life. Because what if, in any other scenario, you would just be changing one disappointment for another? What if disappointment is inescapable? I love books that make me think.

A group of kids in New Jersey find a radio that communicates across the bounds of time. Preteens should probably not have access to this sort of power. Mistakes are made. America is erased. Now they must band together and save the world. Strong enough descriptor that I requested the ARC from Netgalley.

This is a middle grade entry in Ann Brashares's rolodex of novels that explore the importance of memory and identity. For a younger reading audience, this book packs some heft on the deep thoughts scale. There are some very poignant scenes where Frances, Henry, and Lukas of Westfallen must decide what makes them Frances, Henry, and Lukas of New Jersey. Alice and Lawrence's relationship. Lukas's life in Westfallen. Plenty of personal insights to be reflected upon with all the character dynamics.

Brashares shines at the heavy emotions, but I usually struggle with her writing. Her brother seems to have stepped in and saved her on that point. I'll admit it is not by much, however. I enjoyed the niggling sense that there was something special about Alice's first few chapters, but the writing became more simplistic as the adventure built up. The action kept enough pace for the pages to turn. I just wish there would have been a better formed tension.

There were ups, there were downs. This book managed to average out at 3 stars.

The beginning will definitely make you want to keep reading. I would have liked a little more background information on each group of kids, but I can see my students enjoying this book.

WESTFALLEN by the brother and sister duo Ann and Ben Brashares is an edge-of-your seat adventure for readers ages 8-12 that includes time travel and alternate history elements that change the contemporary world into an eerie dystopian alternate reality. It blends elements of communicating through time reminiscent of the older movie FREQUENCY with the dystopian, alternate history elements of THE MAN IN THE HIGH TOWER, only geared toward a Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience. It also includes a diverse cast of kids as the main characters and deals with themes of friendship, inclusivity and bigotry.

The story unfolds when three friends in the present, Henry, Frances and Lukas, come together after having drifted apart through middle school to bury a beloved pet they all shared. In the process, they uncover a mysterious radio that lets them talk to three other friends, Alice, Lawrence, and Artie, who live in the same town as them, but seventy-nine years in the past. What starts out as a fun and harmless comparison of life in 2023 to life in 1944 soon takes a dark turn. Somehow sharing information about the future with those in the past changes the outcome of WWII and causes the kids in 2023 to find themselves in an alternate United States controlled by the Nazis. Even worse, Henry, Lukas and Frances have no idea what they said that caused history to change or have any idea how they will be able to change it back.

The pacing in this novel never lets up. As each event occurs, the tension builds and things go from bad to worse with each domino drop. The authors did an excellent job as well of making it a mystery how the six kids will fix the past to save the future after they decide using the radio to communicate is too dangerous. Unfortunately, this is proven true after they've decided to take steps not to talk to each other anymore, leaving the 2023 group stranded in an new dystopian reality. Of course, determination, friendship and more than a little ingenuity helps as they slowly figure out what happened to change the past and concoct a plan to stop it from happening. However, just when you think everything is back to normal and the world has been saved from Nazi rule, some clues foreshadow that maybe not all the problems for the characters have been solved after all. The cliffhanger ending also leaves things open for more adventures to come.

I only wish that the release date for the sequel had been announced before I finished this first book. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves action and adventure with time travel, alternate history and dystopian elements, especially readers in the middle grade (8-12) age range. I thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review.