Tanglewreck - Hardcover

Winterson, Jeanette

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1582349193 ISBN 13: 9781582349190

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens, 2006

Synopsis

Something frightening is happening to time. Time tornadoes are ripping people from the present, never to return them, while a woolly mammoth inexplicably appears on banks of the River Thames. Eleven-year-old Silver and her guardian live in a house called Tanglewreck, which is somehow at the center of these mysterious time warps. A strange heirloom called the Timekeeper is hidden somewhere in the house, and Silver must find it and protect it . . . because whoever gets hold of the Timekeeper will have the power to control time-and life as we know it-forever.
Reviews
"The sheer exhilaration of the adventure and the many fascinating historical and scientific allusions will keep readers engrossed through to the satisfying conclusion." -Publishers Weekly "An appealing read for fantasy and science- fiction fans alike...Well-developed main characters add liveliness and suspense to the story, while secondary characters (a pair of inept thugs, the original Schrödinger's cat) add touches of humor to a basically sober story. The climax is chaotic and exciting; the resolution is realistic, bittersweet." -Kirkus Reviews "Winterson masterfully weaves together an imaginative array of settings and characters to bring the story to its exhilarating fulfillment. Silver's varied relationships add even more depth, encapsulating family, friendship, deceit, and abuse... "[T]his time-bending sci-fi adventure will be a fine addition to young adult collections." -School Library Journal "Winterson seamlessly combines rousing adventure with time warps, quantum physics, and a few wonderfully hapless flunkies. Her clever science will draw fans of Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, and her dastardly villains and resourceful youngsters will remind readers of the Lemony Snicket's books about the hapless Baudelaires." --Booklist "Silver is a plucky hero in the mold of Neil Gaiman's Coraline and Philip Pullman's Lyra, a creature of action not introspection.

About this title

About the Author

Jeanette Winterson is a Whitbread Prize-winning author of books for adults, including Lighthousekeeping and Written on the Body, as well as The King of Capri. This is her first novel for young adults. She lives in London.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-10–A Time Tornado drops ancient horsemen and chariots into present-day London and causes a busload of school children to disappear into thin air. A mysterious, self-proclaimed scientist known as Regalia Mason secretly seeks to profit from this event and other disturbances so that she can harvest spare time and sell it through her company. Meanwhile, a sinister alchemist named Abel Darkwater seeks a clock known as the Timekeeper in order to become even more powerful than Mason. At the center of this struggle is an orphan named Silver and her 500-year-old house, Tanglewreck, where she lives with her aunt as the prophesied Keeper of the Clock. She embarks on a prophecy-fulfilling interstellar journey to locate the Timekeeper and guarantee the safety of time as we know it. Winterson masterfully weaves together an imaginative array of settings and characters to bring the story to its exhilarating fulfillment. Silver's varied relationships add even more depth, encapsulating family, friendship, deceit, and abuse. Some explanations of futuristic technology, concepts of time and space, and even humor will likely be too challenging for most children younger than the book's 11-year-old protagonist, but this time-bending sci-fi adventure will be a fine addition to young adult collections.–Emily Rodriguez, Alachua County Library District, Gainesville, FL
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About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1582349193
• ISBN 13: 9781582349190
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 414