THE TIME HACKERS
by Gary Paulsen
In an unidentified future time when laptops can be rolled up and gold is worth ten times what it is today, seventh-grader Dorso and best friend Frank find themselves in the middle of a time-travel game that escalates from smelly dead things appearing in Dorso’s locker to involuntary transportation to dangerous moments in history. Should they inform the authorities or try to stop the perpetrators themselves? From the attention-grabbing opening scene through the satisfying ending in which middle-school boys do, indeed, save the world (with considerable help from a stereotypical 1990s computer geek), Paulsen again demonstrates his talent for constructing fast-paced adventure, full of boy humor involving bathroom jokes and looking for pictures of naked women. Light and entertaining, this should appeal to reluctant readers as well as confirmed Paulsen fans. (Fiction. 9-12)