When I started to collect books in 2013, I had bought a batch of “books” loosely related to my interests at the time. When I was looking for time travel books for kids, this somewhat prominent book from the 90’s appeared in my search results from Amazon. It’s name? The Switching Well.

The story follows two girls, Ada and Amber. Ada is from 1891, while Amber is from 1991. Each girl is fed up with their current time; Ada wants to live in a future where women have more freedom and are appreciated, while Amber wants to live in a past where kids aren’t shuffled around with their parents, where moms were only allowed to be moms living in big houses. Both girls find a magical well in a patch of woods, throwing down a coin and making their wish. Amber gets whisked to the past, Ada to to the future.