Time Meddlers

Excellent!

Sarah Sachs is in the sixth grade. She and her dad moved from large Toronto to small Ottawa. As Sarah walks to her new school she is surprised to see a boy walk into the street without checking for oncoming vehicles. Her surprise turns into the first of many shocks when Sarah watches the skidding vehicle drive completely through the boy as if he was not there! This is how Sarah makes her first, though reluctant, friend Matt Barnes. ....................... Professor Nathan Barnes is a famous scientist who has been missing since Matt's birth. Matt lives with his dad's assistant, Nadine, who is nice to him only when the public is looking. Matt wants nothing more than to know if his father is really alive somewhere or not. Sarah and Matt dive head-long into researching the answer. ....................... The duo end up locating a machine that Dr. Barnes created for traveling into different eras. Before they know it, Sarah and Matt are dropped into the year 1615. Worse, they are in the middle of a war between the Algonquin and Iroquois notions. Knowing their own history, Matt wants to be a peace negotiator and halt the upcoming battles. This would save many lives. However, Sarah is not sure that Matt's idea is a good one since it could very well change history as they know it. If history changes, so will the future. ..................... ***** An extremely well done story that will have you rethinking your ideas on quantum theories. Though the tale involves multiple universes and the possibility of time travel, it is told in such a way that kids as young as the age of eight can easily understand everything. The book is recommended by the publisher for children between ages eight and twelve. However, I believe that young adults (teens) will highly enjoy the story as well. ....................... The back of the book is filled with a short glossary, discussions for reading groups, and even some activities that could be done in the classroom. This novel is so exciting that kids will probably not even realize how much they are learning. Excellent! *****

a reviewer

Sixth grader Sarah Sachs is not happy living in Ottawa with her father a member of parliament while her mother is back in Toronto working at the job she loves. Sarah also misses her friends but on the first day of school, she notices a boy who lives in her housing complex. They walk together but don¿t talk. When a car hits the boy, it goes right through him leaving him unharmed. At school he sits next to her and she learns his name is Matt Barnes.--------------------- Sarah learns that Matt Barnes¿ father is a famous archeologist who has made new discoveries all across the world but he never comes home to see his son Matt lives with Nadine, his father¿s cruel assistant. Later after much brainstorming, Matt and Sarah break in to his father¿s lab for some answers, but Nadine catches them. She tells them Matt¿s father is back in time in one of the universes of the multiverse and he can travel through time but can¿t come home. Nadine throws Sarah and Matt back in time to when the Algonquin and Mohawk tribes were at war with each other. They do their best to warn both tribes to be wary of the whites and what to do to preserve their culture. They want to find a way back to their own time and to extract Matt¿s father from wherever he is as they now know Nadine did to him what she did to them.-------------------- Time traveling fans that enjoy history will take pleasure in the appropriately named TIME MEDDLER¿S because the protagonists try to change history so that the Indians aren¿t taken advantage of by the Dutch, English and French. Nadine is a wicked villainess whom readers will love to hate as they root for the protagonists to find a way to achieve their goals including returning to their time. Deborah Jackson is a wonderful storyteller who draws her audience into her tale.----------- Harriet Klausner

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