de la Pena, Matt. Curse of the Ancients. (Infinity Ring series, Book 4)

de la Pena, Matt.  Curse of the Ancients. (Infinity Ring series, Book 4)  Scholastic Press      2013 188p ISBN 978-0-545-38699-9  elem/ms  E-BN  Fantasy

Sera, Dak and Riq are time travelers belonging to a group called Hystorians.  They are trying to fix Breaks in time to prevent a future catastrophe.  In this novel they are sent back into ancient Mayan times.  At first they think their Infinity Ring sent them to the wrong time period, but they figure out that they needed to be there to protect the Mayan Codex.  Then they  warp to the time of the Conquistadors.  Again they save the real Codex and discover the links that connect them back to their first stop in Mayan times.
  

Each of the three time travelers has a distinct personality and set of skills.  When they work together everything goes well.  At times they clash, just as all people do.  The characters stay true to their own selves, with bits of their personalities revealed in each adventure.  The action is nonstop.  Readers will love this.  This title brings in a bit of love interest for the more mature readers.  The author provides enough detail of settings for readers to see the places in their mind’s eye.  Descriptions are detailed without taking away from the action.  The dialogue sounds genuine, not forced.
  

Each of the titles in this series sends the three time travelers to a different time period and location in their attempts to restore time and prevent the catastrophe that awaits Earth.               

Summary: Three time travelers are sent to fix one of the  Breaks in time.  This title sends them into ancient Mayan times to secure the correct codex so that it makes it into the future. Grades 4-7.    

Time travel                                                 --Joan Theal

Buffie, Margaret. Winter Shadows.

Buffie, Margaret.  Winter Shadows.  Tundra Books      327p  $11.95     

978-1-77049-358-2    2012           ms/hs       VG          Historical Fiction

Two young women, separated by time but bound together by similar difficulties and circumstances, find each other through a diary that has been hidden for 150 years.  Both modern-day Cass and nineteenth-century Beatrice struggle with “wicked” stepmothers who are making their lives very difficult.  When the story begins, Cass is still mourning the death of her mother and fighting the interference of her new stepmother in her relationship with her father, as did Beatrice so long before.  When Cass discovers that she can communicate with Beatrice through Beatrice’s diary, the girls form a bond and are able to offer advice to one another that will make their lives more bearable.  This coping mechanism will allow each girl to progress to the best of her abilities and come to grips with the changes in their family dynamics.  The story is told in alternating chapters and offers engaging, well-written historical fiction with excellent characterizations and a well-paced plot. It also offers a unique look of nineteenth-century Canadian life and the difficulties of intermarriage between English and First Nation peoples.

                 

Canada–Fiction, Time travel–Fiction, Mixed marriages–Fiction                                                                             --Susan Ogintz

Gier, Kersten. Sapphire Blue. (Ruby Red Trilogy series)

Gier, Kersten.  Sapphire Blue. (Ruby Red Trilogy series)   

Henry Holt/Macmillan Children's Pub Group  362p  $16.99  978-0-8050-9266-0  

2012       ms/jr  VG-BN  Science Fiction 

Gwyneth discovers that she is the final link in a time-traveling family and a major key to solving the mysteries of the “Circle of Twelve”. Readers will enjoy the intrigue, romance, historical settings, and fast-paced trips back into various time periods.          

Gwen’s family has long been involved with time travel. They always knew that one female in each generation would inherit the gene for time travel based on her birth date.  It seems the family thought it was to be Charlotte, Gwyneth’s cousin, but Gwyneth’s mother disguised her birth date in hopes that she did not have the gene.

It was a baptism by fire for Gwyneth to the Secret Society of “The Guardians” and the intriguing adventures back in time (accompanied by Gideon de Villiers, her partner) to find blood samples from deceased members of The Circle that need to be read into the chronograph.

The author has created a series that will intrigue readers, with its believable characters (Xemerius, the gargoyle ghost; James, the ghost; and Leslie, a schoolmate and best friend), its romantic interludes, and its suspenseful adventures back in olden times.  It seems that Gwyneth Shepard is not an everyday, normal girl after all.  But she needs Gideon to save her from the fate that is not explained in the cliffhanger ending of the book.

Sapphire Blue is the second book in the series.  The series will end with the third book, Sapphire Green.              

Time Travel–Fiction, Adventure-Fiction                     --Linda McNeil

Cohen, Rich. Alex and the Amazing Time Machine.

Cohen, Rich.  Alex and the Amazing Time Machine.      Macmillan/Henry Holt 161p $15.99    978-0-8050-9418-3       elem        Good  Science fiction  

Alex has always been fascinated by science, especially the possibility of time travel.  When his brother is kidnapped, Alex must figure out how to actually build a time machine so that he can go back and prevent the kidnapping.  Grades 3-6    

Alex is the classic nerd.  He goes to the library and reads old science books.  He has always been fascinated by the relationship between time and space and the possibility of time travel.  His best friend Todd is totally into sports.  When Alex’s brother Stephen is kidnapped, Alex finds a baseball card that is identical to the one he has in his pocket, which had been a gift from Todd.  Finding this card gives Alex the confidence that a time machine is possible, because he believes that in the future he had built one and gone back to the scene of the crime and left the card.  So he builds a time machine to go back in time and prevent the kidnapping of his brother.

Science and time travel aficionados who can keep up with traveling back in time to change the present and future may enjoy this title.  The often disinterested third-party narration gets pedantic, which slows down the story.  In addition, the reader never gets any information on how Stephen fares with the kidnappers, so he/she feels doesn't become emotionally involved or connect sufficiently with Alex's fear or compulsion to build the time machine and save Stephen.  This title falls short of its possibilities.                                             --Joan Theal

Buzbee, Lewis. Bridge of Time.

Buzbee, Lewis.    Bridge of Time.   Macmillan/ Feiwel & Friends   290p  $17.99 978-0-312-38257-5      elm/ms            E-BN      Science Fiction  

This is a historical and science fiction novel in which two middle-schoolers go back in time to the era when Mark Twain lived in San Francisco.  Joan Lee and Lee Jones have been classmates since Pre-K. However, they are going to be separated next year in high school because both sets of parents are getting divorced. Therefore this last middle-school field trip is going to be a downer for them. It eventually gets worse when the trip destination is changed to Battery Park because of a mix-up in the reservations.

Joan and Lee slip off to the lighthouse by themselves to nurse their wounds.  While they are there they fall asleep, only to be awakened by rifles firing and a strangely dressed man named Mark Twain.  He becomes their protector and guides them through his San Francisco of 1864.  They see a city without the Golden Gate Bridge and huts on the sites where their parents' houses would be in 2012.  They get to understand and live in a time where not even the simplest 21st-century amenities exist.

They are unstuck in time.  Mark Twain also helps them to time travel between various slices of time so that they can get back to 2012. Their experiences help them to realize that they are not the only time travelers.

The book is a great read for young readers, and it shows them that most problems have a way of working themselves out.  It also allows readers to see what San Francisco might have been like to the well-known author Mark Twain.

Time travel, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Authors-Fiction, San Francisco-Fiction                                      -- Linda McNeil

A Wrinkle In Time (50th Anniversary Edition)

L’Engle, Madeleine      A Wrinkle In Time (50th Anniversary Edition)  Macmillan/Square Fish     2012  236p  $9.99 978-0-374-38616-0   E      ms/hs   Fantasy    

The classic A Wrinkle in Time tells the timeless and exciting story of Meg Murry and her fantastical voyage through a Tesseract, to find her missing father. Accompanied by her brother and a few friends, she travels to Camazotz to face the evil Leader IT.

This timeless treasure from 1962 is still filled with adventure and suspense that continue to entertain and engage readers of all ages.  It is a story that includes aspects of friendship, physics, theology, and the eternal conflict between good and evil while delighting the reader with unearthly characters and fantastical lands.
The 50th Anniversary Edition has been redesigned and begins with "The L’Engle Cast of Characters" chart, which graphically shows the characters in all of Madeline L’Engle’s books, starting with the Murry-O’Keefe’s or the Austins.  This special edition also includes a lively introduction by Katherine Paterson and ends with an afterword written by Madeline L’Engle’s granddaughter, which also contains photographs.  Additionally, the book concludes with "Questions for the Author" and the author’s Newbery Medal of Honor acceptance speech.

E     Virginia McGarvey       Time travel, Fantasy, Adventure

 

Gier, Kerstein. Ruby Red (Ruby Red Trilogy).

Gier, Kerstein.    Ruby Red (Ruby Red Trilogy).   

Henry Holt/macmillan children's pub group   2011  330p  16.99 978-0-8050-9252-3 

ms/hs Science fiction         E-BN

      Gwen is a 16 year old who discovers she belongs to a family with peculiar

abilities. The story shares her trial, close escapes, and feelings as she learns

to navigate through time in historic London.         

This is a good read for those who love the unexpected in a novel. 

Gwen came from an eccentric family who lived in an exclusive London neighborhood. 

It was a family with a rather unusual ability to time travel. 

But the time traveling gene apparently came to only

certain members in a family. Gwen much to the disappointment of her mother and

grandmother did not inherit this talent. Therefore she got to pal around with

her best friend Lesley and live a normal life. The family however focused on her

cousin Charlotte, who supposedly had the gene. They spent time preparing her for

what to expect and other salient bits of information.

     Readers can only imagine how unprepared the family was when it was suddenly

Gwen developed the abilities to travel through time. The delicate balance of

family harmony is toppled and Charlotte is not happy about her lack of good

fortune. 

     Readers will enjoy the complexities of the story and enjoy the discoveries

and experiences of Gwen and her companion in time travel.

    A good read.              McNeil, Linda