“A decision made in the present can result in a completely different future, and there is an infinite number of possible futures…All relationships, even fleeting moments, are tied together as part of our destiny. But that doesn’t mean the same thing across all our futures…when you travel to the future, you’re changing everything. You’re picking a set path that you’re now tied to. You can’t go back anymore because that future is now your present.”
— Kim Hyun Suk’s mother sharing a story of how her experiments in time travel resulted in the loss of a family member in time
Flora Ahn’s A Spoonful of Time (2023) opens with patbingsu weather, a muggy and hot August day. What a better time for a sweet and icy dessert and time travel? Ahn’s junior reader novel opens with a simple high concept that energizes the story.
Maya is a young teenager living with her widowed mother and her maternal grandmother, Kim Hyun Suk, her Halmunee. Her grandmother is experiencing age-related dementia, and her memories and mental presence come and go. Maya’s mother is working long hours at a small law firm to provide for the family, so Maya and her Halmunee spend a lot of time together. And there is Gizmo, the family pug.
Maya’s grandmother is skilled at cooking various dishes from Korean cuisine. One bite of the lovingly made food, and with the projection of her imagination, Halmunee is able to project both herself and Maya into a vivid past, to seminal moments in her memories. Food is a cultural throughline. However, these are not only flights of fancy, walks down memory lane. If cooking is about “elevating” food, Halmunee’s creations enable them to time-travel.
The transporting takes them to particular dimensions in time. The two cannot change the past, but they can observe, and they can learn. They visit family scenes at important junctures, on meaningful holidays, and at important events. Is there a purpose to the magic, or is it only about nostalgia and lessons from the past?
As they explore, Maya is learning about how time travel works. At 13, she is exploring her own sense of the world, with her best friend, Jada. She is noticing a Family Maya and a Friend Maya, as separate aspects of her own identity.
There are episodes of food-making, interspersed with recipes: miyeok-guk (birthday soup), doenjang jjigae (stew), gimbap (seaweed-wrapped rolls), bindaetteok (savory pancakes), songpyeon (rice cake), samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup), hotteok (a filled pancake), and other delights.
Maya experiences the pride of making and then eating:
Maya knew they would all taste the same, but she immediately reached for a green songpyeon, from the ones she had made herself. She took pride in those lumpy, imperfectly shaped green half-moons. She had made them with her own hands and they were fantastic.
Following the making, the grandmother and Maya transport back into time. There, Maya learns about the alternate dimensions, her own powers, her family history, and lessons for life.
She learns about the concept of inyeon, destiny or fatedness. Her grandmother explains, “Destiny. Even the brushing of sleeves with someone is fate.” She also learns that time travel can leave others behind. Even with fatedness, real and permanent loss is possible. In many ways, loss is common, a constant.
The episodes of time travel are especially fulfilling as Maya is trying to solve some mysteries of her own past, given her own mother’s reluctance to share information.
Ahn has a skill for dialogue. She paces the novel’s scenes and beats with skill. She maintains a sense of adventure and suspense throughout. Jenny Park’s b/w illustrations of food are evocative and delightful. The centrality of family, the expectations of respect, and other dimensions of Korean culture infuse the work.
A Spoonful of Time has at its center a major and dramatic surprise, which works because the novel is so well constructed and thought through.
Just one bite…
Shalin Hai-Jew has worked in higher education for many years. She has edited dozens of nonfiction educational books and authored a dozen with a number of publishers.
