TIME TRACERS

Why does time fly when you’re having fun? Time thieves!

San Francisco seventh-grader Taj Carter is an expert time waster and an excellent planner of fun times. He and his friends have an epic summer planned—but when he wakes up on what should be the first day of summer, it’s the first day of school! Everyone is acting strangely…and then gym class freezes, and a bus plows through the gymnasium wall. Eon, a burly Time Tracer in a gray business suit, tells Taj that summer fun times were stolen and the only way to get them back is to join him. Eon works for Father Time at the Universal Time Agency, which fights the time thieves, 600 separate species of insectile monsters that each feeds off a different type of fun time. Taj’s whole community is in danger, and only Taj can return their time to them…but there is a powerful enemy out there guiding the thieves. Can Taj and the agents stop him in…time? Both producers for the media organization the Story Pirates, Bondor-Stone and White aim for an older audience than their tales about Shivers the pirate…and end up with a bit of a mess. The premise isn’t a bad one, but the metaphysics are so poorly communicated that readers will question the many inconsistencies throughout. Characterization suffers as well, failing to explain arguably the most important question, which is, why is Taj the chosen one? The book seems to adhere to the white default.

An easily avoided waste of time.