Middle-Grade Review: Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveler (Lily Tripp Diaries, 1) (Amelia Tait)

About This Book:

The start of a brilliantly funny accidental time-travel diary trilogy for tweens. It’s Back to the Future meets Judy Blume, with a 13-year-old girl who tackles timeslip mishaps, laugh-out-loud embarrassing moments, and one unpredictable adventure after another.

Hi! I’m Lily. My birthday is in two weeks and I have a big secret: Every New Year’s when the clock strikes midnight, I time travel to a new century. Mind-blowing, right!?

Thank goodness my cat, best friend, and school crush always turn up, too. But I still have a ton of problems… like why is my arch-nemesis, Georgia, so good at ye olde insults? How does anyone survive in Ancient Rome without chicken nuggets? Why are my brother’s clothes so ridiculous in every century? And why on earth can’t I stay in one era!?

*Review Contributed by Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*

Lily lives with her accountant parents in England in 2025… most of the time. She has an odd habit of traveling back in time at New Year’s Eve, and has spent a year in Victorian England and another in ancient Rome before returning to the present day after wishing on birthday candles. Whenever she travels, the people in her life stay the same. There are her parents, her best friend Poppy, nemesis Georgia, and crush Ollie. A classmate, Joey, often shows up as well. This year, she is determined to find out how Ollie feels about her at a New Year’s Eve party, but before she knows it, she wakes up in 1621. This time, she and her family are servants living in Georgia’s house! Ollie is also wealthy, but still talks to her. The two still exchange books. Because of her odd habits, and her attempt to make chicken nuggets, Lily is almost accused of being a witch, but before anything happens, travels to 1972. While she enjoys Jackie magazine, she is appalled by the open gym showers and the braless feminists. Lily eventually realizes that Ollie will never like her, not matter what time period they are in, and that Joey is a better friend than she has imagined.
Good Points
British protagonist. Check. Time travel to the past. Check. Light romance. Check. This had all of the elements that I would have adored in middle school. Lily takes the time traveling in stride and blends in fairly well with whatever time period she is inhabiting, even though she keeps her modern sensibility. I liked how the supporting characters stayed essentially the same, but changed slightly depending on the setting. This had plenty of humor, as well as the romance and friend drama that my readers have been asking for.

This was really intriguing, so I wanted to know the reasons for Lily to time travel. I wanted to know not only why she was time traveling, but how. The look into different eras of history is interesting, but I felt like I was missing something. Perhaps the next book in the series will provide more insight.

This is a fantastic choice for readers who can’t get enough time travel books like Saunders’ Beswitched or Kelly’s The First State of Being, but who secretly miss the late Louise Rennison’s Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series.

*Find More Info & Buy This Book HERE!*

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