REDEEMED

Instead of the past, the eighth and final installment of the Missing series takes the Skidmore kids into the far distant future, where they will try to repair time and save the world.

In this installment, readers see the action through the eyes of a new character: Jordan, Jonah’s twin brother, who was rescued from 1932 earlier. The two twins don’t know each other, having grown up in different times, and each resents the other. Jordan, especially, can’t understand that Jonah and Katherine, with their experience in time travel, ought to be calling the shots as the trio advances into the future, and he often disrupts Jonah’s well-laid plans. Complicating things further is the fact that their parents have been “un-aged” into 13-year-olds—the same age as Jonah and Jordan—although they retain their adult memories and still act like parents. Jordan also finds himself trapped with the notorious Second, the genius nemesis who has nearly wrecked all of time—and now it’s up to him to save all of time. Haddix keeps events complicated, even resorting to Venn diagrams to explain things at one point early in the story. It all appears to come together nicely at the end, with loose ends tied up and everything explained, but the journey to that satisfying resolution will keep young readers working to figure it all out.

A satisfying end to a long-running series.