When You and I Collide

Gr 9 Up–A girl-saves-boy bildungsroman that weaves physics, history, and time travel together into a compelling first novel. Winnie wonders what her life might have been like if her mother hadn’t died in the car accident that Winnie foresaw. Winnie can see “splits,” or moments in time when another reality splits from her world. Winnie’s physicist father knows of her gift, and secretly experiments on her at night. When Winnie’s father forces her to participate in a terrible new project, someone dies, and Winnie is catapulted into a different reality, one where there are two Winnies. In this alternate reality, Winnie has to answer the question, if you could go back in time and save the people you love most in the world, would you do it? Norris’s captivating story manages to be historical, romance, and science fiction (heavy on the science). Main characters in this story are white. The World War II setting allows the author to address social issues, including anti-German sentiment and Japanese interment.