Synopsis
In a futuristic world, kids play with a special game that allows them to be transported to any place back in time, but when the creators of the JumpMan games decide to rig the machines against their users, Theo finds himself in a real bad place when he stumbles upon his best friend asking his girl out on a date.
Reviews
Grade 5-8–Imagine Douglas Adams had written The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Crown, 1989) for middle schoolers and you'll have a good idea of the pace, style, and overall inspired silliness of this Australian import. Thirteen-year-old Jules has just worked up the nerve to ask his childhood friend Gen out on a date when a slightly older guy with much cooler gear materializes in her bedroom. Theo has been stranded in the early 21st century by a malfunction of his new TimeMaster JumpMan Pro. He wants to return home, some 3000 years in the future, just as much as Jules and Gen want him gone, but the teens' immediate problem is keeping Theo hidden and out of trouble long enough to figure out how the unfamiliar JumpMan works. Of course, it's not easy to conceal a chatty kid with light-show hair, a talking Coat, and a complete inability to follow TimeJumping's number one rule: Don't Touch Anything. The edict also prohibits divulging details about the future, and much of the novel's humor comes from Theo's unauthorized revelations, such as the real explanation for Bill Gates (he was actually a juvenile delinquent from Theo's era). Readers will laugh out loud at Theo's arguments with the overly solicitous, advertisement-spouting Coat and Jules's internal dialogues with his own freaked-out, hormone-addled brain. Some characters are a little too cartoonlike, but otherwise this is a well-conceived, well-executed adventure that might even attract kids away from glowing screens.–Beth Wright, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, VT
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Gr. 4-8. Hair gel that pulsates like neon lights and a coat that advises its wearer about the nutrient content of food are just two of the comical details imagined by Australian author Valentine. Thirteen-year-old Jules thinks his main struggles are with his overactive brain, his status as new kid at school, and the prospect of asking Gen on a date. But those things seem mere irritants after Theodore drops in from the future on a JumpMan that isn't quite ready for mass production. Theodore scoffs at the rudimentary lifestyle of twenty-first-century folks, but as his JumpMan isn't operating well enough to get him home, he's stuck with Gen and Jules, whom he conducts to a variety of JumpSites--among them, the dawn of civilization. The real fun, however, is in the present: Gen's mother accidentally makes two of herself; Jules' father waffles about having the "big talk" with his son; and Theo can't behave at school. Moral and ethical issues are nicely incorporated into a plot filled with high adventure and engaging characters. Francisca Goldsmith
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