~ Ted Bell (Author)
In 1939, Nick McIver finds a sea chest washed up on the island in the English Channel where he lives. Soon after, he and his younger sister run afoul of the menacing pirate Billy Blood, who seems to have stepped right out of the eighteenth century, as well as a group of Nazis patrolling the waters in an experimental U-boat. Inside the chest is a time machine (built, naturally, by Leonardo da Vinci) and a cry for help from another Nick McIver, who was a captain in Lord Nelson’s fleet. It’s hard to imagine a more fail-safe recipe for a successful middle-grade adventure than pirates, Nazis, and time travel, but the ingredients never quite cohere. Pages are peppered with exclamation points in lieu of earned excitement, and readers may stumble through the nautical terminology as well as a few inevitable temporal anomalies. There is a wave of publicity in store for this, though, so expect considerable interest for this slightly overengineered but still engaging seafaring and time-skipping adventure. Sequels? Count on it. Grades 5-8. --Ian Chipman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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