"Trapped in Time"

Trapped in Time is a book about two 1980s teenage siblings that through some kind of meditative exercise are taken back to the 1950s (I think this is the means by which they journey back into time; I haven't read the book since 5th grade). There, they run into their parents who are meeting for the first time and mess up the whole event. Their task then becomes to get their parents together. Sound familiar?

The book follows very closely the storyline of Back to the Future, one of my favorite movies. It was my fifth grade teacher, Bernal C. Payne, that wrote Trapped in Time. Mr. Payne told us that the writers of Back to the Future banked off of his idea (this was c. 1990). If I recall correctly, Mr. Payne even took the thing to court, but was unsuccessful. It made sense because the two stories were so similar.

The plot thickened a couple of years back when I was watching the special features on my new Back to the Future trilogy DVD set. I learned that one of the writers, Bob Gale, was from St. Louis. This is where I grew up and also where Mr. Payne grew up and taught. The chances of Bob Gale stumbling upon a children's sci-fi novel from a local St. Louis author seemed highly likely.

In any case, if you like Back to the Future, I'd highly recommend getting your hands on Trapped in Time.