She's that rotten, destructive type of child so common in older literature that we're all supposed to think is funny and adorable, like Eloise who lives in the fancy schmancy hotel and deliberately damages property. Charlotte and Clare change places each night, alternating between 1918 and Charlotte's time; although Charlotte and Clare never meet, they communicate through diary notes in an exercise book.

Charlotte Sometimes – New York Review Books

Penelope Farmer is an author who captured "the mysterious emotions of children, their uneasy relationships, and the sometimes terrifying awareness of their encompassing worlds. Charlotte begins to wonder, with increasing dismay, if she really is Charlotte: perhaps she has turned into Clare, rather than just substituted for her. Adolescence is all about forging an identity, and this novel speaks to those questions of ‘who am I? They are hopeful that this will put an end to this routine which is becoming a frustrating way to live, as they are sure that the bed in which they are both sleeping in their different times must be the cause.Charlotte feels a sense of personal identity in now having her own decoration to her dresser, yet muses that the marbles belonged to her when she was living the life of another person, namely Clare.

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer | Waterstones Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer | Waterstones

The reader is really able to empathise with the characters and understand the struggle Charlotte has in keeping up with the time travel and living two lives at the start of the story as well as finding ways to reunite Emily with her sister and send Charlotte back to her time. The book tells the story of Charlotte, a new girl at a boarding school, who wakes up one morning to find a huge tree outside her bedroom window where the day before there had been none. It is a fascinating and original story of a girl named Charlotte who, on starting a new boarding school wakes up the next day in the same bed but in 1918. The writing is quite good as well, and is surprisingly readable for an older book (not all classic books are easy for today's kids to read). Young me, even though she was quiet and introspective and well-read, wouldn't have much liked this either.She is haunted by what is expected of Clare, of living up to Clare, while at the same time making room for 'Charlotte' in this strange world. A time-travel story that is both a poignant exploration of human identity and an absorbing tale of suspense. And her external battle to keep Emily happy, to be kind and good, and to understand the world she found herself so strangely thrust into. Many lines in the song reflect lines directly from the book, such as "All the faces/All the voices blur/Change to one face/Change to one voice" from the song, compared to the first sentence of the book, "By bedtime all the faces, the voices, had blurred for Charlotte to one face, one voice".