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16 in No Time

By Brent J. Rowley

Reviewed by Natalie Martindale
On 3/22/2002

Golden Wings , 2001. Trade paperback:
236 pages.
ISBN: 0-9700103-7-0
Suggested retail price: $14.95 (US)

Overall I really liked the book. Especially since I'm almost 16myself. I feel like I can relate more to the characters. I liked howthe prom was a major crisis in the story. Only a silly dance in highschool would seem so important to two teenagers. Most adults probablythink that it's a lot of trouble for nothing.

The story begins with Celinda getting asked to the prom by themost popular guy in school, Travis Foxx. It sounds like things aregoing just great for her, right? Well there is this one tiny detail:Celinda's parents won't let her date until she's 16. The real problemis that Celinda doesn't turn 16 until Saturday, the day after thedance. Her parents refuse to let her go.

Now let me just say that I am very thankful that I don't have parentslike Celinda's. I mean, one lousy day isn't going to make that much ofa difference. Apparently this is how Celinda feels too. Plus she isgoing with Travis, a once in a life time opportunity. Celinda decidesthat she will stop at nothing to convince her parents that she shouldbe allowed to go. Her friend Mandy tells her that she should just giveup. Mandy isn't desperate to go (her parents have the same 16 rule)because she doesn't have a date anyway. She wants to go with analready-taken guy named Shawn O'Neill.

Celinda tries everything to get her parents to let her go, but it'suseless. Then on Friday, a week from the prom, a weird boy in one ofher classes keeps staring at her. He finally says something to her andgives her a book which is titled, The Power of PositiveWishing. Celinda thinks the kid is weird and doesn't look in ituntil the next day. The book says that making a wish is like baking acake and timing is everything. And the best time to make a wish is thenext day, Sunday, at 4:00. Celinda reads through the rest of the bookand calls Mandy. She gets Mandy to come over on Sunday. They sit inCelinda's room and at 4:00, start wishing. This is the beginning ofCelinda and Mandy's extraordinary adventure.

They have found themselves frozen in time and aging four whole days injust four minutes. This way they will be old enough to go to thedance. The only problem is, how are they going to get anyone tobelieve them? They are moving at about a thousand miles per hour whenit seems to them that they are just walking. This begins the girls'dilemma with trying to prove that they are really turning "16 In NoTime" and experiencing their super high speed. They also have to dealwith disasters that they cause as well as prevent.

The only things that I didn't like about the story was that once in awhile the girls would act ditzy. They seemed intelligent and brave butsometimes they would come out of that character and act like a coupleof blondes (no real offence meant to blonde people). Another thing wasthat the popular guy turned out to be the jerk again. That cliche hasbeen done many times before. The popular guy isn't what he seems andthe girl that was going to go out with him finds out what a jerk he isand dumps him. One other thing that bothered me was how easily Celindabelieved in the whole wishing thing. She just reads the book once andis totally convinced that her wishes really could cometrue. Most teens are skeptical. I know I am. So why was it so easy forCelinda to believe what the book told her?

Besides those three points, I think the book was very enjoyable andinteresting. It tells a story with a subject that not many peoplethink about too often. It is explanatory enough on how the whole timething works so you don't wonder so much about how they did it. Ittells about situations that wouldn't usually be a big deal to adultsor little kids but very important to teens. I think that's one of thereasons why I like this book so much is because it's directed towardteens, like me. I'm sure adults will like this story too because itlets them get an idea of what teens consider problems, and maybe evengo back and visit some of their own teen memories similar to this.

Well, maybe not that similar.