THE QUEST TO UNITE US

A modern American teen is pulled back in time to help out Benjamin Franklin in this debut YA novel.

Unlike the rest of his family—his father, his mother, and his brother, Gus, who was killed in the War in Afghanistan—Marcus Santana has no interest in history. He doesn’t even care about Benjamin Franklin even though his family home in Philadelphia abuts Franklin Court, where the famous statesman and inventor used to live. All this changes on his 17th birthday, when the struggling high school student and aspiring actor is accidentally sucked into a strange blue light in his basement. When he’s spat out on the other side, he’s still in a basement, but a strange old man is staring down at him: “His high, pale forehead looms dome-like and alien…his yellow-ish, bloodshot eyes study me….I realize I’m looking at them through the man’s glasses: round, thick lenses with horizontal lines through the middle, set in heavy, gray-metal frames.” The man, of course, is Franklin, and the year is 1787. Not only that, Franklin tells Marcus that he’s visited the statesman before. But those other visits, while in Franklin’s past, appear to still be in Marcus’ future. The portal closes behind him, leaving Marcus trapped in the past with no money, friends, or means of getting home. Franklin forces Marcus to work to earn his keep—a fact that the teen bristles at—but the boy’s knowledge of shorthand makes him the perfect candidate to be the inventor’s “amanuensis.” The next four months are a period of tremendous importance to Franklin, as the most important men in the country have gathered to figure out a way in which the nation should be governed. Marcus will find himself right in the middle of it, and all he can do is hope he won’t screw anything up that will change the face of American history.

In this series opener, de Rham’s prose is lively and humorous, making the most of Marcus’ fish-out-of-water situation: “The mood in Franklin’s garden is festive. The ale, wine, and rum flow. Elise passes amongst the committee members, offering oysters and clams, and drawing more than one appreciative look, which makes me jealous. Franklin has me bring down his glass ’armonica, the musical instrument he invented.” The premise is admittedly a clichéd one, and all the expected beats arrive on time. The requisite Founding Fathers turn up, and a good deal of the book is focused on the composition of the Constitution. For this reason, certain sections of the novel feel predictably didactic—more in the way of 1776 than Hamilton. Still, the author attempts to deal with the less romantic aspects of the time period as well, particularly slavery via the character of Franklin’s Black servant, Elise. Marcus is an endearingly petulant protagonist, and the portrait of Franklin is a surprisingly complex one: He manages to come off as charming, boorish, altruistic, and hypocritical all at once. The volume feels a bit long, in part because there isn’t much suspense regarding either the fate of the Congress or the destinies of the protagonists. That said, the work has more depth than readers will expect, and it will leave them curious as to what other important events Marcus will bear witness to.

A familiar but engaging and thoughtful time travel tale.