Stuck in the 70s

by: D. L. Garfinkle

Published by: G. P. Putnam Sons

Reviewed by Elysabeth Eldering

Stuck in the 70s follows Shay, who magically appears in Tyler Gray’s bathtub at two in the morning, in the year 1978. She zipped back in time from 2006, not knowing how she got there or why.

We follow the two characters, Shay and Tyler, through this book. I believe the author did a good job in jumping back and forth. A few times, if you aren’t paying attention to the shaded areas on the side of the page that indicate which character we are supposed to be with, you could get lost, but all and all, the story was done well jumping from two first person characters.

I was a little disappointed in the ending because in essence, not only did Shay change the course of a history before her time, she never got back to her own time to explore what impact she made by redoing this small family—and how it affected her life in the future.

Other than this, the writing was done well and the characters were typical teens of what I remember from the 70s and what teens were like just in the recent past. I have teenagers in the home so I could relate to some of the things that were going on with each character.
Other than wanting a different ending or seeing the story expanded out just a little more, D. L. Garfinkle has captured teenagers of two different eras rather well.

Armchair Interviews: Another good book about teenagers from D.L. (Debra) Garfinkle.

Author’s Web site: http://www.dlgarfinkle.com