The Trouble with Time Travel

by Stephen W. Martin, Cornelia Li (Illustrator)

Overview

Max and her dog, Boomer, are in trouble. Big trouble. Max has accidentally smashed an heirloom vase: the only treasure her great-great-great-great-great-great-grandma managed to save when her houseboat sank 234 years ago. Max can come clean—or, she can build a time machine! If she travels to the past and smashes the vase then, there will be nothing for her to break in the future. Brilliant!

In the time machine—surprisingly easy to construct—Max and Boomer bump around to the past and the future, tangle the string of time, and crash into the ancestral houseboat, promptly sinking it. And in the past, the vase remains intact. Disheartened, Max and Boomer return to the moment just before their adventure began, to warn themselves NOT to build a time machine. In spite of the warning, Max tosses a Frisbee for Boomer, directly in the direction of the vase, and their wild adventure begins again, and again, and again...

Joyful and uproarious, this is a one-of-a-kind circular tale that plays on the perils of time travel.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771473323
Publisher:	OWLKIDS BOOKS
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

STEPHEN W. MARTIN is the author of Robot Smash!, Charlotte and the Rock and Stewart’s Best Pen. He has also written for Frederator’s Bravest Warriors and the Netflix series Trash Truck. Stephen resides in Los Angeles, California but misses Newfoundland.

CORNELIA LI is a Chinese-born illustrator currently based in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Illustration, American Illustration, Communication Arts, The Association of Illustrators, 3x3 Illustration, and others.

Editorial Reviews

"Provides a hilarious romp that celebrates the freedom of choice a child has as well as a child’s potential for innovation."

Canadian Review of Materials

"A little sci-fi, a little STEM, and a whole lot of fun."

Booklist

"An enjoyable flit through history—a humorous, lighthearted adventure."

Foreword Reviews

"A little sci-fi, a little STEM, and a whole lot of fun."

Booklist

10/25/2019

PreS-Gr 2-Max and her dog Boomer are playing frisbee when the runaway orb shatters a family heirloom that belonged to her great-great-great-great-great-great grandma. Instead of being honest about the broken vase, Max cooks up a convoluted plan to build a time machine, go back in time, and smash the vase in the past, so "there would be nothing for her to break in the future." Needless to say, mess after mess occurs, when finally Max realizes that she must convince her old self not to build the time machine. This is a rather silly story that attempts to teach children to tell the truth, even when they have done something wrong. The illustrations are vibrant, and show the different time periods that Max visits. VERDICT A light, funny but largely forgettable look at damage control and facing consequences.-Maeve Dodds, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

School Library Journal

2019-07-24
Want to get back to the future? Better rectify the past—and fast!

One slip of the wrist, and the next thing Max knows her Frisbee has thoroughly smashed her 18th-century ancestor's vase (the sole thing saved when the woman's houseboat mysteriously sank). Facing the daunting prospect of fessing up, Max opts instead to rewrite the past by inventing a time-travel machine with the hope of pre-destroying the vase. But while time travel may be a science, it apparently isn't an exact science, and Max finds herself to be the cause of the houseboat's demise in the first place. At last she comes up with a new solution, but will her past self heed her future self's warning? Although this is as nicely convoluted as any good time-travel yarn should be, older children should have no difficulty piecing together its coincidences and repercussions. What could have felt like a "Calvin and Hobbes" retread is instead fresh and new. Max's path of destruction cuts through a swath of time, and it abounds in clever visual gags including the fates of the Sphinx's nose and the Venus de Milo's arms as well as the occasional futuristic robot uprising. Reds and blues suffuse the visual palette, and while Max, who presents white, and her hijinks read well, the eclectic, energetic art steals the show.

Rev up your flux capacitors, because the space-time continuum will never be the same again! (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews