An eventful and ultimately tender time-travel tale.
In Matthews’ middle-grade novel, a boy discovers on his 12th birthday that he can go back in time and alter the past.
One day, after Horace “Ace” Adler wishes for two extra minutes to finish his sixth-grade math final, he feels a sudden blast of freezing air and the classroom briefly becomes a deep-blue, starlit space. When normalcy resumes, the clock has rewound two minutes. The realization that he can time-travel leads Ace to embark on a series of quests. During his expeditions, he encounters a ghostly man wearing white who whisks him away to a giant floating clock with a wild-swinging pendulum that regulates time across the universe. It turns out that a crucial piece of the pendulum is missing; if it’s not found, the man says, the world will end, and it’s up to Ace, with his time-hopping skills, to save it. Before discovering his power, Ace had problems in his own life: His mom died five years earlier, his dad works two jobs (often leaving Ace to fend for himself), and the house where they moved a few years ago feels nothing like home. Now, the future of the planet rests on his shoulders as well. Ace confides in his smart best friend, Alexis, and it’s a race against time as the duo starts decoding clues. They involve unusual items and events that will fuel kids’ imaginations, including a watch belonging to Ace’s father that’s been hidden away; a copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time (1962), which was an unexpected birthday gift from Ace’s late mother; bizarre connections between the man in white and historic earthquakes; and an enlightening encounter with Christiaan Huygens, the Dutch astronomer who invented the pendulum clock. While the friends’ findings sometimes seem overly convenient, such as a report on natural disasters that’s assigned on the last week of school, and the twists leading to the surprising conclusion may strike some readers as slightly dizzying, the appealing mix of fantasy and reality, related in zippy prose, makes for an entertaining read.
An eventful and ultimately tender time-travel tale.Pub Date: March 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781970071801
Page Count: 199
Publisher: Bluebullseye Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pleasing premise for book lovers.
A fantasy-loving bookworm makes a wonderful, terrible bargain.
When sixth grader Poppy Woodlock’s historic preservationist parents move the family to the Oregon coast to work on the titular stately home, Poppy’s sure she’ll find magic. Indeed, the exiled water nymph in the manor’s ruined swimming pool grants a wish, but: “Magic isn’t free. It cosssts.” The price? Poppy’s favorite book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In return she receives Sampson, a winged lion cub who is everything Poppy could have hoped for. But she soon learns that the nymph didn’t take just her own physical book—she erased Narnia from Poppy’s world. And it’s just the first loss: Soon, Poppy’s grandmother’s journal’s gone, then The Odyssey, and more. The loss is heartbreaking, but Sampson’s a wonderful companion, particularly as Poppy’s finding middle school a tough adjustment. Hartman’s premise is beguiling—plenty of readers will identify with Poppy, both as a fellow bibliophile and as a kid struggling to adapt. Poppy’s repeatedly expressed faith that unveiling Sampson will bring some sort of vindication wears thin, but that does not detract from the central drama. It’s a pity that the named real-world books Poppy reads are notably lacking in diversity; a story about the power of literature so limited in imagination lets both itself and readers down. Main characters are cued White; there is racial diversity in the supporting cast. Chapters open with atmospheric spot art. (This review has been updated to reflect the final illustrations.)
A pleasing premise for book lovers. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9780316448222
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
More hijinks-filled adventure than mystery, this is sure to win an audience.
Ben Silverstein’s summer with Grandpa is about to go wild.
When his parents need to “work out some troubles,” 10-year-old Ben gets shipped off to tiny Buttonville, where everything seems to be closed or out of business since the button factory was shuttered years ago. Ben’s used to spending summers in the pool in his Los Angeles backyard with his friends, and Buttonville looks positively coma-inducing. When Grandpa’s mouser Barnaby deposits what has to be a baby dragon on Ben’s bed, Ben and his new friend Pearl (whom the whole town calls “troublemaker” on account of a few innocent incidents) decide to visit the new “worm doctor” who has moved into the abandoned button factory. (Ben had heard her strange assistant Mr. Tabby buying ingredients for “dragon’s milk” at the grocery....) When their visit unleashes a hairy, pudding-loving imaginary beast on the town of Buttonville, Ben and Pearl volunteer to catch him. Selfors kicks off her Imaginary Veterinary series with a solid, entertaining opener. Ben and Pearl are Everykids that readers will relate to, and the adults of Buttonville are often delightfully weird and clueless. Twenty-five pages of backmatter include information on wyverns and sasquatch as well as the science of reptiles and a pudding recipe.
More hijinks-filled adventure than mystery, this is sure to win an audience. (Adventure. 8-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-316-20934-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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