Lily Tripp

by Amelia Tait

Thirteen year old Lily Tripp never planned on being a time traveler. It just happens. One minute she’s in the twenty-first century, and then with the New Year’s countdown she finds herself in an entirely different era. Each year has new challenges and she has to learn about the customs and technology of each age from Victorian England to Ancient Rome to America in the 1970’s. Lily’s best friend Poppy, her nemesis Georgia, and her special friend Ollie appear wherever Lily “lands.” Her family and pets are there too, but everyone takes on a role different from the one they have in their original time frame. For example, in the seventeenth century, Lily is Georgia’s servant and sleeps on a trundle bed at Georgia’s side. Lily records all of her travels in a diary along with lists and special notes about her experiences.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of humor in this book. Readers are also exposed to the history of various time frames, and will have to decide how they would confront various situations. Being a young teenager is hard enough without being thrown into completely new expectations. Bullying and friendship are major themes. Young love in the form of a possible budding romance is woven into the story also. I liked watching the characters Lily and Poppy navigate the minefields inherent in being thirteen years old. The diary format was a good one for this tale. I will watch out for the next book in this series, and I recommend it for middle age readers, especially girls.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Rating: 4/5

Category: Children’s Fiction, Middle Grades

Notes: 1. Ages 10-14

    2. #1 in the Lily Tripp Diary Series

    3. Includes notes explaining what is historically accurate and what isn’t.

Publication:  May 12, 2026—Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group (can be pre-ordered)

Memorable Lines:

Every New Year’s day until the last one, I entered a New Old Year. And everyone I know came back to a different time with me and spent a whole year in the past. But here’s the kicker: absolutely no one seemed to notice it was happening except for ME.

Fairly early on in my time travels, I realized that while everyone’s memories get adjusted, they don’t disappear…And if old memories won’t fit into new perspectives, then it seems they end up sort of jumbled, so people don’t remember exactly what happened, but they do remember how they felt.

The one thing I can say for certain about Joey or Joseph or whoever he is—the one thing that was true in 1922, 1621 and the 1970s—is that he has a knack for staying out of trouble while getting other people into it.