Dawn of Time by Judy Klass

YA: Science Fiction & Fantasy: (for kids and for adults) Dawn, 17, lives in a small town in Pennsylvania. Things get weird one Friday when she is heading to history class with her two best friends. Dawn "falls" into time, and ends up traveling to Florence during the Renaissance with a teen named Baldassare. He explains that Dawn is a "Sensitive" -- a kid who can travel through time. He warns her about a teen from ancient Greece named Androcles. Baldassare says Androcles is taking reckless risks and jeopardizing the space/time continuum. Baldassare has a haunted quality, perhaps from spending years alone. Dawn is drawn to him, but they are very different. He takes her careening through Florentine history, with centuries flying by, and it rattles her. Dawn demands some time at home, to think. But back in her town, she cannot talk about where she has been, and when, to her parents, friends or teachers. She starts to feel like an orphan in time. When she meets Androcles, he is laid-back and good-humored, and he takes her to the Caves of Time, where time does not exist. Dawn learns more of what it means to be a Sensitive, watching the life of a great ancient writer from birth to death, and wandering in a sense, "inside" of great old books. Androcles says that Baldassare has projected the dangerous, delusional things that he, himself, is doing onto Androcles. Dawn must decide which of these two guys she believes and trusts -- and, with that guy and two teens from other eras, she must prepare for an epic battle in which the universe may be at stake.

Young Adult • Science Fiction/Soft SF • Fantasy/Mythic, Retelling, and Folklore • Science Fiction/Time Travel