Zetta Elliott's A Wish After Midnight tells the tale of a young African American girl in modern day Brooklyn who is transported to 1863 Brooklyn. Genna, the protagonist, is a young girl living with her mother and siblings in a small apartment in a bad neighborhood. She is determined to better her circumstances and spends her time studying so that she can go to college to be a psychologist. Genna also spends her time at a local botanical garden, the home of the fountain she fills with pennies and wishes. Her wish for a different life comes true, though not in the way she expected. When she awakens in 1863, she has been transported into a very different and difficult life which she handles with grace and wisdom beyond her 15 years. Eventually, she finds her way to the boy she loved in 2000 (while still living in 1863 as he came back too) and finally, back home to her own time with a new understanding of the herself.
This book is particularly interesting because it shows the struggles and dangers of life for a young African-American girl during the Civil War but also today in Brooklyn and although both are very different circumstances, there is still a considerable overlap in racial segregation, gender role struggles, and an economic class system that determines quite a bit of life's path for a person.
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