Subway Love

by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Overview

What if destiny leads you to your soul mate, but the laws of time conspire to keep you apart?

If her parents had never divorced, Laura wouldn’t have to live in the shadow of Bruce, her mom’s unpredictable boyfriend. Her mom wouldn’t say things like "Be groovy," and Laura wouldn’t panic every weekend on the way to Dad’s Manhattan apartment. But when Laura spots a boy on a facing platform, lifting a camera to his face, looking right at her, Laura feels anything but afraid, and she can’t forget him. Jonas, meanwhile, thinks nonstop about the pretty hippie girl he glimpsed on the platform — trying to comprehend how she vanished, but mostly wondering whether he will see her again in a city of millions — and whether if he searches, he would have any chance of finding her. In a lyrical meditation on love, Nora Raleigh Baskin explores the soul’s ability to connect, and heal, outside the bounds of time and reason.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763668457
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Nora Raleigh Baskin is the acclaimed author of several novels for young readers, including Surfacing and All We Know of Love. She lives in Connecticut.

Editorial Reviews

03/17/2014
Baskin (Surfacing) embraces magical realism in this evocative story, which blends time travel with the notion of soul mates destined to connect. In 1973, 14-year-old Laura wishes she could live with her conventional father in New York City, rather than with her hippie mother and her mother’s abusive boyfriend in Woodstock, N.Y. When visiting her father in the city, she meets a strange boy on the subway. The boy, Jonas, has problems of his own, including his father’s extramarital affair. He is instantly drawn to Laura and becomes obsessed with reuniting with her, and neither teen understands why they can’t seem to contact each other outside their subway encounters. Alternating between Laura’s and Jonas’s point of view during and between their meetings on the subway, the novel captures the essence of the times in which both teens live and expresses the teens’ dissatisfaction with their situations. While Baskin keeps certain things ambiguous, such as the nature of the time travel, the book’s themes remain clear. The teens’ love for each other is eternal, providing figurative and literal escape from less-than-perfect homes. Ages 14–up. Agent: Nancy Gallt Literary Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

A wonderfully unique love story that made me believe in the possibility of fate bringing two souls together, whatever the odds.
—Jo Knowles, author of See You at Harry's and Living With Jackie Chan

Baskin methodically and tautly unwinds their time-transcending romance... Artfully depicting the transformation of New York City through photography and street art, Baskin interweaves a powerful narrative of change into an already powerful love story.
—Booklist

Baskin embraces magical realism in this evocative story... Alternating between Laura’s and Jonas’s point of view during and between their meetings on the subway, the novel captures the essence of the times in which both teens live and expresses the teens’ dissatisfaction with their situations. While Baskin keeps certain things ambiguous, such as the nature of the time travel, the book’s themes remain clear. The teens’ love for each other is eternal, providing figurative and literal escape from less-than-perfect homes.
—Publishers Weekly

This is a quiet, heartfelt love story that is not only about two kids falling for each other but also about their healing from painful events and learning to take charge of their own fate, despite the failures of the adults in their lives. Although she’s shadowed by her abuse, Laura’s not defined by it, and Baskin paints her as an active and eager partner in her emotional and physical relationship with Jonas, not just a girl needing to be saved. A subplot involving a subway graffiti artist further contextualizes their romance and leaves readers with the message that this love story, like any love story, is both singularly important and also just one of many human narratives.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Baskin makes the time travel seem believable and leaves readers hopeful by relaying an ending that fits with the theme, “Know how to live in the time that is given you.” ... Readers will be intrigued and enjoy this romance.
—School Library Journal

Baskin’s gentle story focuses on the Hebrew myth of the beshert, the soul mate, two people linked together outside time and space. ... The book’s true romantic triumph comes when Jonas tells Laura, “I don’t matter and we don’t even matter. You matter to me and you have to matter to yourself.” Take that, Twilight.
—VOYA

A page-turner of a short novel, skillfully designed to encourage both family and classroom discussion of difficult topics such as divorce, abuse, first love, intermarriage, and coping with the end or loss of both casual and important relationships.
—Philadelphia Jewish Voice

Quietly resonant... Baskin accomplishes the tricky feat of making Laura's everyday 1970s life seem both novel and familiar. Her two main characters have a lot in common, including parents who disappoint them and resulting feelings of alienation. Maybe their friendship can't last forever, but what can? Riding the train from one end of the line to the other — and back again — they forge a connection that is healing and, ultimately, beautiful.
—The Chicago Tribune

From the Publisher

04/01/2014
Gr 10 Up—Initially, readers might think that this is just another story about two teens who come from dysfunctional, broken homes. Laura lives with her mom in Woodstock, where her brother's drug problem is ignored and her mother's boyfriend abuses Laura. Jonas lives with his mom and dad, but discovers that his dad has a girlfriend. Laura travels on weekends to visit her father in Manhattan, where she meets Jonas on the subway. Their first encounter is fleeting, and though they eventually strike up a conversation, they don't speak the same generational language. Laura has no cell phone and doesn't know what Facebook is. Laura lives in 1973, and Jonas lives in the present day—the only place their love exists is within the limits of the subway. Baskin makes the time travel seem believable and leaves readers hopeful by relaying an ending that fits with the theme, "Know how to live in the time that is given you." The novel calls attention to the lost art of graffiti on New York subways, which inspired parts of the story. Language and an off-the-page sexual encounter make this a better choice for older teens. Readers will be intrigued and enjoy this romance that could be found in The Twilight Zone.—Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

School Library Journal

2014-03-17
A time rift connects Laura in 1972 with present-day Jonas. The story of their romantic connection alternates with scenes of each struggling with parental divorce in his or her own time. While the mechanics connecting Laura and Jonas are never explained, they seem to be related to a set of New York City subway trains tagged by a particular graffiti artist, Spike, in 1972. While riding these particular trains, Laura and Jonas can see, touch and talk to each other—but leaving the train severs their connection. Spike befriends Laura in 1972 and is also able to connect with Jonas—even outside of the subway. Wanting to preserve his subway art, Spike believes Jonas' photography hobby can help, as a white boy with a camera will be less likely to draw authorities' attention than a Hispanic graffiti artist might. There's a lot happening in this novel: time rifts, parental divorce, physical abuse, Jewish mysticism, musings on hippie culture, commentary on racial tension in the 1970s and more, all of which ends up overwhelming the romance that supposedly centers the story. Though readers are told Laura and Jonas are soul mates, the disjointed narrative never allows real chemistry to develop. An ambitious concept that doesn't take off. (Historical fantasy. 12-16)

Kirkus Reviews