All Shook Up

Eileen Goudge's Swept Away #8

by Francess Lin Lantz

Louise Greenspan's love for rock and roll hasn't diminished a bit since her time-travel back to Woodstock of the Sixties. But this time, Louise needs the help of her friend Ashley's computer to visit the Fabulous Fifties. It's all part of an elaborate plan to keep her boyfriend Ethan from moving away. Identifying an old guitar that once belonged to a famous singer is part of the scheme, but landing right in the middle of a mob of screaming, fainting teenagers is a shock. It's a performance by the King himself...Elvis Presley. When Louise helps rescue one of the swooning fans, she's on her way to finding the mystery guitar, meeting the amazing Elvis, and solving her Eighties romance problems!

He's a legend that still lives in the Eighties...and Louise gets to see his sensational Fifties performance live!

Genres: Time Travel, Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1987

About the author

Francess Lin Lantz (b. August 27, 1952, Trenton, New Jersey — d. November 22, 2004, Santa Barbara, California) was an American children's librarian turned fiction writer, whose fan base was mostly preteen and teenaged girls.

For more than two decades, Lantz wrote more than 30 books, including several juvenile bestsellers. She won the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Adults award for her 1997 romance, Someone to Love. Stepsister from Planet Weird (Random House, 1996) was made into a Disney Channel television movie in 2000.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Lantz was raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She initially aspired to become a rock musician and composer. She graduated in 1974 from Dickinson College (in Pennsylvania) and from Simmons College (in Boston) in 1975, where she earned a master's degree in library sciences.

She died in Santa Barbara, California in 2004 following a five years long battle with ovarian cancer; she was 52 years old.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who'd ever think that I would give a teenage fluff story 5 stars? Well, this book actually gave me shivers. Not of fright, but of wonder that the past could affect the future in such a positive way.

This is the final book in the 1980's teen time travel series Swept Away. I have re-read the entire series. To recap, Ashley has a computer she named Merlin and she accidentally discovered how to program it in the 4th fractile, which is time. She and each of her friends have gone on trips to the past to eras that interested them and they always discovered that things were not the way they seem. There's a subtle moral to every story.

In this story, Lou Greenspan, who had the second adventure in the Woodstock book, desperately needs to travel to 1958. Her boyfriend, Eden, has to move to California (from Westport, CT). She has an idea that he can move in with her forever hippie, Uncle Joe. But Uncle Joe has bad news of his own. His landlord wants to see the place where he has his record shop and where he lives above it. Uncle Joe doesn't have the cash for the down payment. But he has an old beat up guitar with the initials E.P. carved into it. The person who sold it to him said it belonged to Elvis Presley, but there are no photos anywhere showing him with it. Lou determines to meet Elvis and find that guitar in 1958. And it goes pretty well. I remember that craziness of girls swooning for their idol. She meets him, finds the guitar, and gets her photo but oh no! She's pulled back in time to home before she can grab her backpack. Worse yet, Merlin is on the fritz so she can't go back. Maybe that's why this is the last book? But fate steps in and in a wonderful way, too, that left me with goose bumps.

I highly recommend this now vintage series.

[Mell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I used babysitting funds to buy these books. I'm sure I'd cringe if I re-read them today.