Lost in Cyberspace

by Richard Peck

Overview

Meet Josh Lewis, a sixth grader at the elite Huckley School. When his best friend Aaron announces that he can time travel with his computer, Josh isn't fazed. But when Aaron actually microprocesses himself into cyberspace, the duo must deal with unexpected visitors from the past -- and find out more about Huckley's history than they ever wanted to know!"Amiable characters, fleet pacing, and witty,in-the-know narration will keep even the non-bookish interested."-- Publishers Weekly

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101174340
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	785,304
File size:	192 KB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

RICHARD PECK (1934-2018) was born in Decatur, Illinois and lived in New York City for nearly 50 years. The acclaimed author of 35 novels for children and young adults, he won the Newbery Medal for A Year Down Yonder, a Newbery Honor for A Long Way from Chicago, the Scott O’Dell Award for The River Between Us, the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Are You in the House Alone?, a Boston Globe-Horn BookAward Honor for The Best Man, and the Christopher Medal for The Teacher’s Funeral. He was the first children’s author ever to have been awarded a National Humanities Medal, and was twice a National Book Award Finalist.  

Editorial Reviews

Amiable characters, fleet pacing and witty, in-the-know narration will keep even the non-bookish interested in this semi-fantastic adventure. Sixth-grader Josh, from an upscale Manhattan home, gets mixed up in his best friend Aaron's experiments with "cellular reorganization'' (Aaron compares the process to faxing himself through cyberspace; Josh calls it time-travel). Before long Aaron has imported a few characters from 1923 into the present, where Josh must cope with them. To Peck's (The Last Safe Place on Earth) credit, the time travel mechanisms seem almost plausible; even better, they don't overpower the story. The author takes equal care in creating his characters, which include a string of silly English au pairs hired by Josh's newly single mom; Josh's 12-year-old sister ("I'm virtually thirteen and emotionally fourteen''); trendy teachers (the reading teacher calls his course Linear Decoding). Except for a pat and unnecessary twist at the end, when Josh's father shows up just in time for Peck to hint at a marital reconciliation, this clever caper doesn't miss a beat. Ages 10-up. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 4-7-Prep-school life in the '90s is confusing for sixth grader Josh as he tries to cope with his parents' separation, his obnoxious older sister, and a succession of wacky English "O Pears'' hired to assuage his mother's guilt about returning to work. He doesn't need the troubles caused by his computer-nerd best friend, Aaron, who is trying to invent a way to travel in time. But ready or not, Josh finds himself briefly transported back to 1923, and a housemaid from that time appears in the present to reorganize his life for the better. Crammed with events and overwhelming (not to mention unconvincing) computer theory, this story of a boy coping with trying situations is amusing, but uneven. For better Peck dealing with a similar theme (without the trendy computer technology), stick with The Ghost Belonged to Me (Viking, 1975).-Anne Connor, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal

Who says that humor and science fiction don't mix? Peck pulls together threads from these and several other genres (problem novel, time travel fantasy, ghost story) to weave his own pattern of adventure and comic relief. Josh, a sixth grader at a private school in New York City, is barely coping with his parents' separation and the stream of unsuitable au pairs his mother hires. When his best friend, Aaron, merges two computers into a time machine, it seems an unwanted complication, but visitors from the past have an unexpected impact on the present--and possibly the future. Josh and Aaron endure the discomfort of molecular reorganization to experience the thrill of time travel, but the most memorable scenes occur when they bring people from the past into the present. Elements of the plot may intrigue those who wonder about the nature of time, but most readers will be happy reading this witty, fast-paced novel just to see what happens next.

Carolyn Phelan