Gr 5--8--Newbery Honor winner Murdoch's middle grade novel is an engaging adventure story with a lot of time traveling. Bee and Frederico are two children from different time periods--Frederico is from 16th-century Rome, while Bee lives in current-day New Jersey. They are brought together through a mysterious magical wardrobe and an adventurous time-traveling cat. Their quest is to rewrite the past to save the future, and the cat shows them the way, revealing how to use a time machine. Murdoch will captivate readers with her knowledge of medieval Europe and the city of Rome, and her vivid depictions of each character's distinct lifestyles. Readers may be surprised by the contrasts between Bee's and Frederico's perceptions of gender roles and certain cultural expectations. As a modern-day girl, Bee's appearance and behaviors intitially strike Frederico as foreign--but Frederico soon learns that girls can be just as empowered and outspoken as boys, and that it is a good thing. Character's skin tones are not described. VERDICT This time-travelling friendship book will be a hit for fans of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Lloyd Alexander's Time Cat.--Lisa Gieskes, Richland County P.L., Columbia, SC

As a political hostage of Pope Julius II, 11-year-old Federico Gonzaga is witness to the historic rivalry between artists Raphael and Michelangelo as the latter works on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Federico's pampered life is opulent but lonely, until he discovers a cat in an enigmatic closet designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The cat's mysterious movements link him to only child Bee, an intrepid 21st-century Brooklynite who discovers a drawing of herself--purportedly by Raphael--in the home of elderly neighbor Miss Bother, who's struggling to pay her bills. Using the wardrobe to travel to 16th-century Rome, Bee seeks a variation on the sketch's creation, this time with a signature, to ensure that its sale in the present day can provide for Miss Bother. Though the plot holds few surprises, Murdock (The Book of Boy) crafts an arresting blend of speculative time travel and art mystery with a sumptuously imagined Renaissance Italy setting filled with evocative sensory details. The unlikely pairing of cosseted Federico and bold Bee, both cued as white, provides comedic moments, and historical figures, such as the volatile Michelangelo and the suave Raphael, are vividly rendered. Ages 8--12. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary. (May)

After receiving a Newbery Honor for The Book of Boy (2018), Murdock returns to the historical fiction genre, this time mixing things up with time travel (thanks to a clever wardrobe built by Leonardo da Vinci) and an art mystery. Murdock keeps her story fresh with tight, fast-paced writing that incorporates history by bringing it engagingly to life and tying it meaningfully to the present. The piece of history in question? Rome, 1511, when 11-year-old Federico (a duke's son) is being held as a political hostage by the pope. Despite being a prisoner, Federico is relatively free to wander the papal palace, including the Sistine Chapel, where the curmudgeonly and supremely unhygienic Michelangelo is painting his famous ceiling, and the study, where Raphael created Federico's own portrait. It is, nonetheless, a lonely existence and why haughty yet likable Federico is happy to find a discarded wardrobe that produces, first, a tawny cat; second, Herbert Bother, an art buyer from New Jersey, 1928; and third, Bee, an 11-year-old girl from present-day Brooklyn, who has stumbled upon an impossible Raphael sketch of herself. Murdock gives readers plenty to puzzle over as Bee and Federico work to fulfill promises and reshape events for the better. Spot art from Zelinsky will appear in the final edition of this inspired foray into the Renaissance and beyond.