A Handful of Time by Kit Pearson

by Kit Pearson

A young girl travels back into time to the summer when her own mother was twelve years old.

Genres: Fiction, Young Adult, Canada, Time Travel, Childrens, Fantasy, Middle Grade

Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1987

About the author

Kit Pearson spent her childhood between Edmonton Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia. As a high-school student, she returned to Vancouver to be educated at Crofton House School. She obtained a degree in English Literature at the University of Alberta, and spent several years following the degree doing odd jobs or travelling in Europe.
In 1975, she began her Library degree at the University of British Columbia and took her first jobs in that field in Ontario. She later obtained an M.A. at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature in Boston. Returning to Vancouver, she completed her first novel "The Daring Game" which was published by Penguin Books.
Pearson now lives in Victoria, British Columbia, a few blocks from Ross Bay Cemetery, one of the settings in Awake and Dreaming.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Patricia is shy and unhappy and has strained relationships with her parents, so when they decide to divorce she is sent to stay with some cousins for the summer. Apart from some brief time travel parts, and some bits about good outdoor play, the sort that involves getting dirty, wet and a bit of danger, this story largely focuses on difficult family relationships. This might be a good book to read if your parents are divorcing or you have a difficult relationship with them but otherwise you might feel alot of this book isn't talking to you. There is a part where a 12yr old girl is worrying about her appearance and if she is attractive to the opposite sex, from an adult point of view you can see this is because she is not getting the love she needs from her parents but this coupled with some worries about putting on weight and being too fond of food made me feel the book wasn't giving a positive message to girls. My daughter said these bits were boring and it would have been a good book if it had stuck to time travel and playing in the woods.

[Ariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Handful of Time is a Canadian classic. I believe it is old enough I can use the word classic. It’s a quick and easy read but there is no maximum age for this novel.
When twelve year old Patricia starts to watch her parent go through divorce she’s sent to spend the summer at a lake in Western Canada with her cousins. Patricia doesn’t want to be there and she doesn’t fit in. She feels lonely, isolated and extremely mundane. Her cousins tease her, she’s left out and all she really wants is to go home. Patricia finds an old pocket watch hidden in the floor boards of a cabin and is taken back to the lake, in a time when her mother was twelve. Patricia watches her mother grow up and will do anything to stay here, in this one magical summer. But when the watch stops turning Patricia must face the present, herself and her family.
The first time I read this book was in elementary school and it gave me an interesting view on parents. As a child it forced me to think of my parents as people, which I think is a rather profound realization. It’s not often parents turn into people before the offspring becomes an adult, and even then it’s not a guarantee. Parents have pasts, they have lives outside of their children and they grow and change as much as anyone. It’s a difficult concept to think of parents in this way. The more I thought about my own parents the more I realized they were complicated. They transformed from figures of safety and regulation into human beings with faults and perfections and designs. Before, they seemed almost statues; never changing, always constant, simple. They did not have lives. I knew everything about them and who they were; they were my parents and nothing else. How wrong I was. It’s a lot harder to accept parents as people with passions then it is to condemn them to unconscious ideals.
In adult-hood, and now being a parent, this book caused me to view children differently, specifically my own. Or rather, wonder how they view me. Am I just an authority figure? Someone who holds laws and rules with no real complexity? Am I constant and unchanging? Will they see anything beyond the role of parent? When will I become a person to them?
This book has a lot to do with the parent/child dynamic and a lot to do with how children view the authority figures in their lives. Perhaps we all need a little understanding for each other. For as we all know: when you’re a child you don’t know what it’s like to be a parent and when you are a parent, sometimes you forget what it’s like to be a child.

[ستایش · Rating 4 out of 5]

بخش‌هایی از کتاب:

تنها در واقعیت است که متوجه غیرمنطقی بودن خواب‌هایمان می‌شویم.

گاهی اوقات شاید بهتر باشد که گذشته را فراموش کنیم، یا حداقل آن را بپذیریم و پشت‌سر بگذاریم.

وقتی آدم غمگینه، دوست شدن با آدم‌های جدید کار راحتی نیست.

تاریخ: ۱۴۰۰/۵/۱

[A.C. Vaner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember reading this many years ago in elementary school as a class novel and it really spoke to me. Even though that is the last time I actually read the book, and I don’t recall all of the characters’ names (Aunt Genie? Ruth? Nan? Bruce? Patricia?), I remember the plot quite well and that in itself is reason enough to say that Kit Pearson has written a masterpiece.

A Handful of Time is quite fast-paced and easy to read, though I would suggest reading between the lines and thoroughly comprehending the symbolism within. There is deep resonance within the story and so much to it that I truly think would be missed if the story is read and taken at face value—albeit still a wonderful perspective.

Topics such as family, memories, unresolved conflict, secrecy, bullying and consciousness are explored. The map at the beginning of the book really helps the reader visualize the place well; the setting plays an essential role in the story.

I think it’s amazing that I still remember this story thirteen years later. I remember I assigned it to a tutee of mine in the past and I think that this is a classic that every kid growing up in Canada should read.

Fun fact: Kit Pearson used to work at the local library in my community and A Handful of Time is carried there.

[Basil]

my 4th grade teacher gave this to me and was like, "you like to read! here, try this!" and for some reason i pretended not to like to read or to like this book just to be a punk. but i did like it, and i read more kit pearson, and she shaped who i am today! plus she's gay and it's. so validating to my little gay heart to know that i connected w/ a very successful author's books as a little gay kid before i even knew! also, i'm sorry bronwyn, i was very full of myself that year.

[Anaam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an AMAZING book. It's bloody brilliant ;) But this book is wonderful I've read it 3 times already! It is an amazing book for ages 10-13 Kit Pearson isn't a well known author, but after reading this I knew she was incredible! So I started reading other books of hers and it was just as great! But I have to say by far this is one of my favourite books of all time! :)

[Rachie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book when I was cleaning out my childhood room and I remembered reading it over and over again. It was so nostalgic to read it again as an adult and I enjoyed it just as much as I did when I was 11.

[Alysha Voigt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read this book after finding it in my little library and recognizing the cover from my childhood. Surprise surprise that it’s about time travel! This was a quick read that transported me back to summer vacations at the cottage. It does a good job illustrating how strained relationships can trickle down through generations. It was interesting to peel back the layers of this family, particularly the dynamics between the women. I just wished that it had gone deeper and that the ending didn’t feel so abrupt.

[Bryndís · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Love this book. And I will love it forever.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely loved how easy this book was to read and how it appealed to every age level. However, just when I was really getting into the time travel and mystery, I noticed that it takes a backseat to the family trauma. So, as much as I enjoyed the book, I felt like it didn't have the resolution I was after. Even though it offered some great insight for those struggling with family relationships and divorcing parents.

[Jessica Carney-Hoornweg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book I read to my students in 2024 (Gr 5&6). This is a beautiful story about learning who your family is, not judging people on first impressions, and that there is always something deeper going on with people that we do not know. Loved it.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this to my kids. Nostalgic+++++.
It really is a great story ❤️. We are starting her war trilogy next. I can barely remember the stories but I sure remember the covers 😍😍

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this as a child

[Maryam · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب جالبی بود و متن روانی داشت. من به دلیل اینکه با شخصیت اصلی داستان (پاتریشیا) تونستم ارتباط برقرار کنم ، این کتاب رو دوست داشتم. بنظرم شخصیت خیلی آشنایی برای من بود.

[Emily Terry]

This book was pretty good, I did like the evolution of her relationship with Kelly and her other cousins. I also liked the way that seeing her mom as a young girl helped her to understand her in the present. I liked the way that time travel was handled and that it stopped with Ruth hiding the watch. I wish that I liked her mom and grandma more, though.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot believe that in all my years of having Goodreads, I haven't reread this book to review it. It is one of my favourite books ever, and I wish I could remember when I first read it. But I loved it, and I have loved it ever since.

It's a quiet book about a 12 year old girl, Patricia, who goes from Toronto to "the lake" in Alberta to spend the summer with extended family she doesn't know, while her parents work out the details of their divorce. She doesn't get along with her cousins (think city mouse and country mice), she feels detached from her parents; she's not having a good time, until she finds an old pocketwatch that, when she winds it, somehow brings her back in time to the summer when her mother was 12.

I'm normally not a big fan of magical realism in my books, but for some reason this really works. We don't get an explanation as to why Patricia goes back in time, but it's not important. But the setting, the characters, the story, they're all so wonderful. The book is well-written, the characters are so real, I love how you see them grow. And the setting of the lake is almost magical itself, the beach and the loons and all of it.

I do have a lot of nostalgia invested into this book, but even reading it now, I found myself captivated by the story. Like Patricia, I loved traveling to the past, and seeing her mother as a child. The story is fast-paced and engrossing, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in one sitting and for hours after I finished it, kept catching myself thinking "wonder what's going to happen next... oh, right, I already finished that".

Time-travel aficionados will miss the usual time-travel trappings... not really any discussion of "how" or "why", no fears about being trapped in one time or another, and the traveler being invisible neatly lets her out of several of the standard problems. This is definitely a mother-daughter book--the actual time travel is practically an afterthought.

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patricia’s famous parents are separating, pending divorce, and they send her to visit her relatives in Western Canada for the holidays. Patricia simply doesn’t fit in with her rough and tumble cousins. In an old deserted cottage she finds, hidden under a loose floorboard, an old-fashioned fob watch which takes her back to the past—and enables her an insight into her mother’s childhood. She finds herself drawn to the girl her mother used to be. A deeply satisfying book which gently probes many complex issues.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twelve-year-old Patricia is unhappy. Her parents are separating, preparatory to getting a divorce, and she has been sent to spend the summer with unknown relatives. Her cousins all enjoy outdoor activities, while Patricia is happiest in the kitchen, or taking care of baby Rosemary. But then she discovers an old watch, which somehow takes her back in time to when her mother was her age, and had her own troubles. Believable characters and an imaginative plot combine to create an excellent story. Recommended.

[Maggie Dore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why did I read it in one shot? Yes you've guessed it. It's because it was good.
I loved it so so sooo much. The plot, the idea of the story was breath taking. I really really enjoyed it.
That's all I can say about. You can see my 5 star review, so you can tell that I loved it.
THE BEST.

[Rachel]

Emily said to read this!
I hope its great :D

[Erin Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Easy read, and although I love stories about time travel...it isn't one I'd bother to read again or recommend. 2 stars.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book I thought it was awesome I would so read it aigian

[Leeanne G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patricia Potter has been sent out west for the summer to stay with her Aunt Ginnie, Uncle Doug, and cousins at their cottage by a lake in Alberta while her parents organize their divorce. Coming from Toronto, Ontario, Patricia feels very out of place with these country people and her cousins are very disappointed to discover she doesn’t know how to do anything they normally do around the cottage. They make an agreement that when Aunt Ginnie lets them loose for the day they leave together but then split up as soon as they are out of her sight. The cousins go off to build forts and canoe while Patricia is left alone to do whatever she wants. On the second day of this she finds a pocket watch under the floorboards of the guest cabin that Uncle Doug is renovating. It’s her grandmother Patricia Reid’s pocket watch from 1929 and when she winds it up again it transports her back to the summer when her mother, Ruth, was 12 years old, the same age as Patricia is now.

This watch being able to transport the person who winds it up back in time is a fascinating concept. The more turns Patricia gives the knob, the longer she can stay in the past without anytime passing in the present. She always returns to the exact same spot in time that she left. Patricia immediately feels more at home in the past than she does in the present. Here she can be truly invisible and does not have to think about what her parents are doing at home in Toronto. Her time travelling allows her to meet family members she never met in the present and explore the lake and its inhabitants as they used to be.

The summer Patricia travels to was the worst summer of her mother’s life. Patricia and her mother have never really connected in the present. Ruth Reid is a busy, famous woman - the host of CBC Newswatch. She’s never really had time or shown much interest in her daughter. In the past, Patricia meets a Ruth who, on the frosty, fierce, beautiful surface, looks like her mom, but deeper down is a complicated, conflicted, incredibly lonely young girl who has the world against her success and happiness. This is a girl Patricia desperately wants to be friends with and be able to comfort during this difficult time.

For whatever reason, I was not expecting to really enjoy this book. I soon became engrossed in the story. Kit Pearson makes all her characters rich and complicated, so unravelling their individual stories was great fun. The past and present timelines are balanced well, allowing us to meet characters from both times. Patricia and Ruth are characters I deeply empathize with and it is a joy to see the watch bring these two together in the future. In more ways than one it is more than just a watch.

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Handful of Time

Bibliographic Information
Author: Kit Pearson
Title: A Handful of Time
Publisher: Puffin Canada
Place of Publication: Canada, Toronto, 320 Front Street
Date of Publication: 1987
Number of Pages: 201

A handful of Time is a really good book, and it’s about a young girl names Patricia whose parents are getting divorced. Patricia is sent away to ‘the lake’ to spend the summer with her cousins, aunt and uncle. Patricia isn’t having a good time because she doesn’t fit in with her cousins because she is an ‘Easterner’, until she finds an old watch under the floorboard in the attic, which takes her on adventures to the past of when her mother and her siblings were children. Patricia learns about her mother’s childhood while escaping the present time.

This book is fantasy, but it’s mostly realistic. I like this book because it is written be one of my favourite authors; Kit Pearson. In this book some things relate to the ‘Harry Potter’ series, which is interesting. In this book the watch (the time turner in Harry Potter) takes you back in time. Also Patricia’s dad’s name is Harris Potter, that one’s kind of obvious, and Patricia’s aunt’s name is Ginnie, nand Patricia’s younger cousin calls her ‘Potty’ because of her last name, and that’s what Peevs calls Harry in Harry Potter. I thought this was interesting, so I looked it up and found out that this book was written ten years or so before Harry Potter, and now I know what people mean when they say that ‘J K Rowling copied from other authors’ books’, which as I now can see, is kind of true.

I recommend this book to children under 13 or 14, because even though I liked the book, I can tell it was aimed for children under 13 of 14 to read. Anyone who had read and liked any of Kit Pearson’s other books like; ‘The Whole Truth’ and ‘and Nothing but the Truth’ should read this book, along with her other books. This book is a short read and took me only 2ish days. I would rate this book 3.9/5 because I read it too late in my life, and I wish I read it when I was 12, but overall it is a good book.

[Kat Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I picked up this book to read because I read and loved Kit Pearson's Guests of War trilogy when I was a kid. Obviously that series has the benefit of being about World War 2 and therefore having a built in understanding of the characters and their conflicts. But in the end, this book just wasn't as good as that trilogy. There are some elements that are brilliant, very well written, but I was just left wanting more. The ending was lacking and very rushed. I'm not going to grade it on a curve just because it's a kids book, and also because the first two thirds were great. It really seemed like it was building to something more, but it just kind of fizzled out.

This also might be the first book I read that mentions my hometown so bonus points for that.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

12 year old Patricia is super shy and reserved, and she doesn't fit in with her parents or the cousins that her mother has shipped her off to visit. Until one day she finds an old watch, winds it up, and ends up back in the same summer cottage, invisible, the summer that her mother was 12 years old. I wish there were more time travel books written these days--Laurel Snyder's is the only one coming to mind. But I inhaled them as a kid, and I know I would have ADORED this one. Patricia's reserve resonated with me, and I enjoyed seeing her learn and become more confident in herself. She reminds me a bit of BethEllen in the Harriet the Spy books.

[Tamsyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Required reading in junior high was The Sky is Falling by Kit Pearson, about British children who were sent to live with foster families in Canada during WWII. It always stuck with me so I picked this one up at Wee Book when I saw the author, and was not disappointed. This is a YA novel and was surprised to find it was set near Edmonton at "the lake"...which I couldn't figure out. Pigeon? Wabamun? Anyway somewhat parallel theme in that a 12yo girl is sent to live with her cousins for the summer,but there is a time travel element, courtesy of an old watch. It is a really well done exploration of being young, family relationships, self discovery, etc.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book entered my life when I was in about grade 4. I found it at a thrift shop a couple years back and remembered that I had liked it so I re-read it. And I have no regrets. A girl who is struggling with fitting in with a family she barely knows, then to find a way to the past to see her mother and get to know her mom that way? So cool.

The characters are great, I loved the main Character's inner dialogue and sense of conflict in this stressful time in her life.

I only knocked a star off this review because I don't like my chapters to be as long as the chapters were in this book. But that's just me wanting and getting a bigger sense of accomplishment when I see I've read 47 chapters vs. 17 chapters.

Overall, the content of the story is great and super touching as this young protagonist gets to know her mom through visiting the past and learns to appreciiate her in the present.

[ANI]

Terribly weird week & one too many spare evenings means I'm back to reading the historical fiction I read when I was 7 (6?8?). Somewhere in there. I was always more of an Awake and Dreaming kid, that one's set in Victoria & I'm charmed by familiar locations. There's a Sloop John B mention and a complicated mother/daughter dynamic, neither of which meant anything to me in elementary school. Good stuff. I hope kids are still getting into Kit Pearson