Aleca’s having her party at one of her favorite places- the roller-skating rink! (I was mildly annoyed that on the front cover they look like roller blades when those kids were definitely using quads in the story). She’s forced to invite all her classmates, even the kids she doesn’t like- and is particularly dreading the presence of Madison, who is mean and acting suspicious of Aleca’s secret lately. But Aleca is determined to ignore Madison and just have fun with her best friend. It’s also hard to ignore her great aunt though, who in spite of being old (by Aleca’s standards) dresses up to flaunt her skating skills. She’s actually quite impressive. Then (of course) Aleca has to freeze time to save Aunt Zephyr from a crash (and probable serious injury) on the rink, and is terrified someone might have found her out.
A new character gets introduced right near the end- a genius boy who is difficult to talk to and might have his own special ability, but it’s hard to tell if he’s even aware of it, when they can’t speak plainly. So now I have to read book three to find out more about him. I really liked the Aunt, all her zest for roller skating. She talks about skating on the Embarcadero in San Francisco in her past, when it was closed to traffic after an earthquake, which made me grin. And when everyone cautions maybe she’s too old to risk skating anymore, she says “Instead of cowering from life, I choose to roll toward it on these small plastic wheels! And that you see, is what makes me spry!” Loved that.
Also loved how Aleca and her Aunt and later her mother, deftly thwarted Madison’s attempts to threaten and get Aleca into trouble. All by turning her words around back on herself- it was so well done.
Borrowed from the public library.