May 14th 2019 by Henry Holt & Company
E ARC from Edelweiss Plus
Will and his young brother Jamie are unceremoniously packed off to visit an aunt in Scotland when their mother, who is in a war-torn country helping out, is in danger and their father must go rescue her. Not much explanation is given, and soon the two are on a plane and then staying with their aunt and cousin Nan. The Scottish country side is interesting, and Will hopes to be able to explore. When he does, Jamie's Magic Eye book has mysterious consequences. When trying to squint at the pictures and bring them in to focus, Will opens a portal to other times in the castle's history. At one point, Jamie is sucked in, and ends up being fostered by the local lord. When Nan and Will finally get back to him, a year has passed in the past, and Jamie doesn't quite remember them. Traveling back and forth through time, Nan and Will learn a lot about the past and try to fix what they can about the history of Scotland and of their family in order to get Jamie back.
Strengths: This had a LOT of good Scottish history with which I was not familiar, and I loved the notes in the back that helped back up events mentioned in the book. The setting was interesting, and Nan was a great cousin. Jamie was a bit of a brat, but he and Will are in a difficult situation. The time travel portal is well done, although those Magic Eye books are kind of evil! (I've never seen a picture in one!) There are lots of time travel books set in castles, but this really had some fresh twists to it. With its occasional illustrations, it reminded me a bit of Snyder's Any Which Wall.
Weaknesses: My students are not nearly as fond of time travel as I am.
What I really think: As much as I like this sort of book, my library already has Kent's The Secrets of Hexbridge Castle, Ephron's Castle in the Mist, Fox's The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, Bruchac's Dragon Castle, Eager's Knight's Castle, Crossley-Holland's Arthur At The Crossing Places, Davies' Longbow Girl, Winthrop's The Castle in the Attic and Whitman's Wildwing. None of them circulate much, so I'm going to have to pass on this title.
I think maybe it's hard for kids to wrap their heads around time travel plots. I know that my daughter had to really WORK to get the time turner plotline in Harry Potter 3.
ReplyDelete