Anne Lindbergh is the daughter of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, author of Gifts from the Sea. When I picked up Nick of Time, I thought it was by the mother.

Actually, the daughter has more of a sense of humor than her mother. Nick of Time is a funny, clever book about a group of 13 year olds who suddenly discover that they can time travel from 1994 to 2094, and back.

Nick, who lives in the future, appears one morning in the kitchen of the strange alternative boarding school where Jericho (the narrator), Alison, and Bunny (the other time-travelers) go to school. Nick and his family manage a museum about late 20th century customs, in the "historic" home where the others go to school — which is also Jericho’s home. The school is run by Jericho’s father, a certifiable loony who goes by the title Fugelman. Misinterpretations about 20th century culture are some of the funniest parts of the book.

I would say the themes of the book are probably how hard it is to be 13, the pressure to conform to social expectations, and the rewards of succeeding in being a non-conformist, and the difficulties that being a non-conformist can impose on the people around you, especially if you’re an adult non-conformist with children.

But the book isn’t preachy, it’s funny and clever, and the language is delicious.