A Message Through Time

by Anna Ciddor

Overview

A pacey and action-packed time-slip adventure that carries step-siblings Felix and Zoe back to Ancient Roman times - and also, accidentally, drags a Roman girl into the present.

When 11-year-old Felix finds a message in a bottle during a trip to France, he is in for the surprise of a lifetime. Suddenly he is flung back 1700 years to Ancient Roman times, dragging his very unwilling 15-year-old stepsister, Zoe, with him.

They are offered sparrows for lunch and horse-spit as medicine, but that is only the beginning! When they ricochet forward to their own time again, Felix and Zoe discover they have accidentally brought a high-class Roman girl with them... Can they navigate the strange Roman world - from opulent city to distant sacred spring - and return the 12-year-old girl to her family before time runs out?

In this standalone companion novel to the acclaimed The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, featuring a whole new cast of characters, award-winning author Anna Ciddor has created a roller-coaster adventure that will have young readers on the edge of their seats.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781761186455
Publisher:	Allen & Unwin
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	8 - 13 Years

About the Author

Anna Ciddor has been fascinated by the past for as long as she can remember. It would be her dream come true to step through time! Instead, she immerses herself in research and digs out the tiniest details so she can bring the past to life in her imagination - and in her books. Anna is based in Melbourne, Australia, but her research quests have led her across the world. She has hunted for druids in Ireland, Vikings in Norway, and her grandmother's childhood in Poland.

Anna's work has won her many accolades, including the Nance Donkin Award for Children's Literature, a grant from the Australia Council, Notable Book awards from the Children's Book Council of Australia, and shortlistings for numerous other awards. Some of her best-loved books include Runestone, The Family with Two Front Doors, and The Boy Who Stepped through Time.

To find out more, visit annaciddor.com.

Read an Excerpt

1
MESSAGE IN ABOTTLE
‘ D O N ’ T YO UD A R E T R Y TOorder frogs’ legs for lunch
again,’ said Zoe, shoving open the cafe door.
Felix grinned. ‘That’s what you’re supposed to
eat in France,’ he retorted.
As they stepped inside, a waiter glanced their
way and held up two fingers. ‘Deux?’ he called, over
the noisy clatter of the cafe.
‘Oui,’ Zoe called back, and she glanced round at
Felix. ‘Deuxmeans ...’
‘Two,’ said Felix. ‘I know.You’ve told me twenty
times. And I can count in French anyway.Un . ..
deux ... trois!’
The waiter beckoned them to a table and Zoe
snatched up both menus.
‘I’ll order,’ she said.‘Une pizza marguerite,’ she told
the waiter.
Felix shrugged. He didn’t really want to eat
frogs’ legsanyway. He’donlywantedtofreak
Zoe out.
When the pizza arrived, he grabbed a slice with
both hands, and sank in his teeth. Cheese and tomato
oozed everywhere.
‘Use your serviette,’ hissed Zoe.
He gave her a look, then picked up another slice,
and made sure the cheese dripped across the table in
long, messy strands.
‘You are so embarrassing,’ growled Zoe.
She picked up a knife and fork and ate her own
slice neatly, cutting off all the crusts and pushing
them aside.
‘Why don’t you eat your crusts?’ he demanded.
‘They have no nutritional value. They’re just
empty carbohydrates made from highly processed
flour,’ said Zoe in a superior voice. ‘Mum doesn’t
believe in eating rubbish, like your dad does.’
Felix shrugged. ‘Well, you’re missing out on the
best bits!’ he said.
He crunched his own crusts as noisily as he
could, and watched her, impressed that she managed
to keep her mouth turned down even while she was
eating.
I’m not keen on having a new family either, he
thought, especially a big stepsister. But I don’t spend my
whole life sulking about it!
Dad kept making excuses for Zoe. ‘Fifteen’s a
hard age to get a new father,’ he’d say, or, ‘It’s just
been Zoe and her mum for years.’
Dad thought Zoe would come round eventually,
but Felix couldn’t see how.
When it was time to leave, he snatched up Zoe’s
leftover crusts, and bounced ahead of her out of the
cafe.
‘The Roman bathhouse now!’ he sang out.
‘You don’treallywant to go there, do you?’
groaned Zoe.
‘Yes! You promised your mum you’d take me.
And it’s our last chance.We’re leaving in a few hours.’
‘Okay, but it’s a waste of our last few hours in my
opinion. It’s just a ruin.’
‘Of course it’s a ruin,’ said Felix. ‘It’s ancient
Roman. It’s thousands of years old.’
‘Actually, less than two thousand,’ corrected Zoe.
‘Hey,’ Felix sniggered, ‘what goes up but never
comes down?’
He waited, ready to burst out laughing, but of
course Zoe didn’t answer. ‘Your age!’ he crowed.
‘Get it? Your age always goes up!’
He hurried along the narrow street, glancing
eagerly at the crumbling side of the bathhouse.
Behind an iron railing, he could see an exciting
excavation pit – broken archways and ancient floors
poking out of the dirt.
At the corner, they found a little carpark, with
a few cars nestled under a big shady plane tree, and
on the left ...
‘Wow, this wall’s hardly broken,’ said Felix.
A large, curving wall rose out of the excavation
pit. It had high arched windows, and a pattern of red
bricks and pale stone visible under the dirt.
‘Why did the Romans build their bathhouse in
a hole in the ground?’ he asked.
‘Don’t ask me,’ said Zoe, crossly. She never liked
it when she didn’t know something.
‘Come on, let’s find the ticket office,’ said Felix.
Beyond the wall was a modern structure made of
large sheets of brown metal.
He ran up to it, then skidded to a halt. Attached
to the closed doors was a big sign:FERMÉ. He
knew that notice very well by now. Nearly every-
thing in Arles seemed to be closed half the time.
‘It’s shut,’ he sighed, when Zoe joined him, ‘but
I think it says it opens at two again.’ He looked at his
watch. ‘It’s one twenty-eight now.’
‘Good,’ smirked Zoe, ‘we can go look at some
shops.’
As Felix dragged his feet after her, back around
the corner, two pigeons came flapping out of the
ruins.
‘I know!’ he said. ‘I’ll wait here and feed the
birds.’ And he began to break up bits of pizza crust.
‘Don’t be an idiot.You can’t stay here by yourself,’
said Zoe.
‘I’m eleven! I’m not a baby.’
He crouched down, holding out a bit of broken
crust on his palm. One pigeon with very pink
feathers on its neck took a wary step towards him.
Felix stayed still.
‘Come on,’ said Zoe. ‘You know I can’t leave you
here on your own.’
‘Shh,’ he hissed.
‘Felix, stop mucking around,’ said Zoe.
Felix blew out a huff of frustration and stood
up. The pigeon immediately rose in the air. But
instead of flying away, it landed in a gap in the
tumbledown wall, and began tugging at something
with its beak – a piece of paper stuck in the neck
of a bottle.
Felix chuckled. The paper had writing on it.
‘Look, the pigeon’s got mail,’ he said. ‘Here, pigeon,
I’ll help you with it.’
The bird hopped sideways as Felix grasped the
base of the bottle and tipped it upside down.
‘Yuck, that’s dirty!’ squawked Zoe. ‘Don’t touch.’
‘It’s just an old bottle,’ said Felix.
But as he shook it, something rattled down the
wall, sending the pigeon flapping off in alarm. Felix
grabbed the paper before it could fall down the
hole too.
‘Hey, pigeon,’ he called, waving it in the air.
‘Here’s your mail.’
‘Felix, stop being ridiculous,’ growled Zoe. ‘And
stop touching all that rubbish.’
But Felix was staring at the message on the paper.
‘It’s written in English,’ he said, ‘and it says . ..’
He goggled at the words. ‘It says:Congratulations!
You have found an ancient Roman writing tool that can
carry you through time!’ He looked up at his stepsister.
‘That must be the thing I heard falling out!’ he cried.
Spinning around, he plunged his hand into the
hole, and scrabbled along the ledge where the bottle
had been lying. But all he could feel was dusty bird
poop ... and a small crack. Desperately, he tried to
wriggle his fingers into the crack but it was too tight.
He glared at the wall in frustration. ‘I can’t reach
it! It’s fallen inside the wall!’
‘Felix,’ said Zoe, and it sounded as if she was
speaking through clenched teeth. ‘You are being a
total nitwit. There is no such thing as time travel.’
‘But listen. It says:If you write“AVE”, the Latin
word for “Hello”, on the bathhouse wall, it will take you
back to Roman times. And to come back, you can just write
“VALE”, the Latin word for “Goodbye”, in the same
place.See, it’s even got instructions!’
Zoe snorted. ‘Time travel is a load of piffle.’
‘You can’t know if you haven’t tried,’ protested
Felix. ‘Only, I haven’t got the writing tool.’ He glared
at the wall again.Then, ‘I know!’ he cried. ‘Maybe the
hole goes all the way through to the excavations!’
He hurled himself at the railings and pressed his
face against the iron bars. Maybe the pen was down
there in the pit somewhere, among the broken
pavings and columns.
‘Well, you can’t look for it while the bathhouse
is shut,’ said Zoe firmly. ‘And I thought you wanted
to get some souvenirs for your friends. If you don’t
get a move on, we won’t have time.’
Reluctantly,Felixpeeledhimselffromthe
railings.
‘You’re not bringing that whole rubbish dump
with you,’ said Zoe, pointing at the empty soft-drink
bottle and the piece of paper in his hands.
Scowling, Felix turned and shoved the bottle in
the hole again.
But he folded the precious message and, when
Zoe’s back was turned, he slipped it into his pocket.
 

 

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
I MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE 1
II HAVE TO TRY 8
III MULE DUNG AND HORSE SPIT 12
IV THE UGLY DOG 17
V THE BATHHOUSE 24
VI INTRUDER IN TIME 30
VII ARE YOU A PRINCESS? 36
VIII YOU MUST BE VERY POOR 41
IX THE SHRINE 47
X BROKEN 52
XI ROMAN DRESS 55
XII OFF WE GO! 60
XIII GONE! 63
XIV ARITHMETIC 70
XV ANOTHER WAY 75
XVI OVER THE BOAT BRIDGE 79
XVII THE NASTY PROWMAN 85
XVIII THE HOLE 91
XIX HARD TACK AND PICKLED ONIONS 95
XX HOMESICK 101
XXI ON THE TOW ROPES 105
XXII HEAVE, HEAVE! 111
XXIII THE DRUENTIA 116
XXIV BOY OVERBOARD 122
XXV WRONG SIDE 126
XXVI NOT A GLINT 129
XXVII THE SACRED SPRING 134
XXVIII SACRIFICE 141
XXIX INVITATION 148
 

XXX WATER JUGS AND OLIVE PIPS 154
XXXI THE PAINTER 160
XXXII CALVES’ BRAIN PUDDING 165
XXXIII WAITING 171
XXXIV WHO WILL YOU MARRY? 178
XXXV ATTACK! 185
XXXVI WHERE’S FURIA? 193
XXXVII THE BONE 198
XXXVIII LAVENDER AND ROSES 206
XXXIX FUNERAL 211
XL LEMURIA 217
XLI HEADING FOR ARELATE 223
XLII BASKETS OF CHEESE 228
XLIII SURPRISE 234
XLIV THE HEAD IN THE CUPBOARD 238
XLV NO PLASTIC DINOSAURS 246
XLVI RUNNING OUT OF TIME 253
XLVII ALONE 257
XLVIII THE BULLY 262
XLIXA HUNDRED NUMMI! 268
L THE WINGED HAT 275
LI IT’S MINE! 281
LII THE GIRL WITH THE CAT 287
LIII UP IN THE GODS 292
LIV VALE 299
LV WHAT’S THE TIME? 302
GLOSSARY 309
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE BOOK 313