A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott

Be careful what you wish for, it just might come true.

Fifteen-year-old Genna shares a tiny, cramped apartment in Brooklyn, New York with her mother and three siblings. Her family has been steadily falling apart ever since her father left and returned to his native Panama. Genna especially has a hard time since she has a sense she doesn’t belong. She feels like an outsider at school and she has a hard time connecting with her teenage brother and sister. She is also sad that her mother has to work so hard to support the family. Genna does her best to ease her mother’s burden by not giving her anything to worry about. She gets good grades in school and cares for her infant brother. When Genna wants to escape her worries and problems she visits a neighborhood park where there is a fountain. While there, Genna always makes it a point to toss coins into the fountain and make wishes. One night, after an uncharacteristic fight with her mother, Genna is desperate to find solace at the fountain. While there, she finds a coin, tosses it in and makes a wish to leave Brooklyn and her miserable home life. To her surprise she wakes up in Civil War era Brooklyn. Genna has no choice but to adapt to her new environment and soon finds herself working for a doctor and his wife as a nanny. You cannot help but to be enthralled by this story. Elliott does a fine job of intermingling speculative with historical fiction. I highly recommend this one to teens and adults alike.