Enjoyable and adventurous.
An Australian preteen’s new bed enables her to travel into the past.
Twelve-year-old Harper Wells wants to grow up, something her dad has been reluctant to let her do ever since the disappearance of her mum six years ago. But after getting a new bed from a thrift shop, she’s transported back in time every time she falls asleep. With the help of Maximilian Durand, the boy sent to check up on her time wanderings, Harper learns about the World Office of Timeline Officials. The organization sends out Timeline Officers, all of whom are kids, to keep an eye on the past and make sure nothing changes, thus avoiding “catastrophic results further up the timeline.” The officers use Wollemi Beds (the Wollemi are trees)—and Harper’s bed actually belongs to Officer 42, who’s gone missing. WOTO will kill Harper if they find out she’s not really Officer 42. With Maximilian as her guide, she sets out to complete the case assigned to Officer 42, but as more Timeline Officers disappear, Harper must figure out for herself what the right thing to do is. This debut, a trilogy opener, dances around some big themes—class disparity, racism, and Australia’s difficult history—but this volume doesn’t explore them in depth. Still, readers looking for a fun, fast-paced time-travel series will be satisfied, and they’ll anticipate the many mysteries left for Harper to unravel. The leads are cued white.
Enjoyable and adventurous. (case file, author’s note) (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781761112928
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Wombat Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
A rich, enthralling historical mystery that engages and educates.
Siblings decode familial and wartime secrets in 1940 England.
Headstrong 14-year-old Lizzie Novis refuses to believe that her mother, a U.S. embassy clerk who was working in Poland, is dead. After fleeing from her grandmother—who’s attempting to bring her back to America—Lizzie locates her 19-year-old brother, Jakob, a Cambridge mathematician who’s stationed at the clandestine British intelligence site called Bletchley Park. Hiding from her grandmother’s estate steward, Lizzie becomes a messenger at Bletchley Park, ferrying letters across the grounds while Jakob attempts to both break the ciphers generated by the German Enigma machines and help his sister face the reality of their mother’s likely fate. With a suspicious MI5 agent inquiring about Mum and clues and codes piling up, the siblings, whose late father was “Polish Jewish British,” eventually decipher the truth. Shared narrative duties between the siblings effectively juxtapose the measured Jakob with the spirited Lizzie. Lizzie’s directness is repeatedly attributed to her being “half American,” which proves tiresome, but Jakob’s development from reserved to risk-tolerant provides welcome nuance. The authors introduce and carefully explain a variety of decoding methodologies, inspiring readers to attempt their own. A thoughtful and entertaining historical note identifies the key figures who appear in the book, such as Alan Turing, as well as the real-life bases for the fictional characters. Interspersed photos and images of ephemera help situate the narrative’s time period.
A rich, enthralling historical mystery that engages and educates. (Historical mystery. 10-14)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780593527542
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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