ALA Booklist (Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Eleven-year-old Marin is exploring her new neighborhood when she witnesses something miraculous: several teenagers arrive at the house next door only to vanish in an instant ike magic." Her neighbor Charley is the only other person aware of these extraordinary, elusive beings. He calls them the Remarkables, for their apparent ability to travel through time, if that's what it is. As Marin acclimates to her new hometown, Charley's obsession with the Remarkables reveals a secret shame he can't overcome alone. It's up to Marin to help him solve the magical mystery, even as she faces her own unfinished business with the friends she left behind. With just a splash of the supernatural, this latest from Haddix (Children of Exile, 2016) is well-grounded in reality, delivering a stand-alone adventure about friendship, family, and learning how to reckon with past mistakes while building toward a better future. Despite a bland cast of characters, this well-paced blend of mystery and fantasy will have young fans flipping pages all the way to the epilogue in search of answers.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Haddix's series are as popular as ever, but this stand-alone will intrigue her new generation of fans.

Kirkus Reviews

Eleven-year-old Marin discovers her "new" neighbors are from 20 years ago.Light science fiction and plenty of mystery abound when her mother's job takes Marin and her family from Illinois to small-town Pennsylvania. The preteen worries about losing old friends and making new ones, but not for predictable reasons. An unexpected opportunity allows Marin—and readers—to learn how fear, bullying, and secrets poisoned her former friendships. The second and larger mystery, which also drives the plot, occurs when Marin, scouting out her new neighborhood, notices several teenagers appear and suddenly vanish. Charley, who's lived next door with his grandmother since his parents' substance use made it hard to care for him and his brothers, has seen them, too. Dubbing these mysteriously vanishing teens the Remarkables, Charley believes that they are time travelers from the past and include his father and the girlfriend his father may have accidentally killed. In this tightly woven, stand-alone story, Marin and Charley set out to identify the Remarkables, stop the accident that claimed one of them, and hopefully keep Charley's father from succumbing to addiction. In the process, the author seamlessly combines elements of both mysteries while also raising ethical dilemmas about changing the past. Most characters, including Marin and Charley, are default white, but some of the Remarkables are kids of color.Blending issues that matter to young adolescents with intrigue and a surprise ending, Haddix proves why she's a master of middle-grade fiction. (Suspense. 8-12)

School Library Journal (Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

Gr 3-6 -When 11-year-old Marin moves to Pennsylvania, she doesn't expect to find magic. Then she sees a group of teenagers vanish into thin air. The only other person to witness this event is lonely, angry Charlie. But Charlie insists the Remarkables are linked to a tragedy 20 years ago. Can Marin and Charlie stop the disasterand should they? Marin's fascination with the Remarkables stems from her struggles with toxic friendship; by contrast, Charlie blames the Remarkables for setting in motion events that tear his family apart. Family proves crucial to the way both Marin and Charlie understand friendship and how they make meaning out of pain. Marin's relationship with her parents and baby brother is hilarious and endearing. Perceiving the complexity of her parents' bond helps Marin reassess her past with mean girls and the Remarkables' seeming doom. To help Marin's mother take a promotion, her father becomes a stay-at-home dad, but he still struggles with the loss of his career as a gym teacher. Marin's new emotional maturity also allows her to offer Charlie compassion. Haddix realistically portrays Charlie's distress at his parents' addiction and shows how Charlie's identification with his father leaves him nearly incapable of imagining happiness for himself. Ultimately, Marin discovers that her and Charlie's role might not be in changing the past but rerouting the future. VERDICT Gripping, heartfelt, thoughtful and fun, Remarkables will delight readers of both tween realism and time-travel fantasy.-Katherine Magyarody, Texas A&M University, College Station