I really like time travel books. In fact, they are one of my favorites so I really wanted to like this. But, it didn't totally work for me. Saul lives in Scotland with his mom, dad, and new twins. He has some good friends, a cool hang out, and he deals with normal boy stuff - school, a bully, wanting a new bike. While going to the store for his mom a girl, Agatha suddenly appears and almost gets hit by a car. It turns out she came from 1812 in an experiment done by her father. Good premise but the middle part of the book lagged quite a bit and the actual method of time travel...not great. I know...time travel is far fetched to begin with but this didn't work for me at all. Also, some of the relationships - Saul's friends with Agatha and another girl Agnes, the resolution of the bully problem, his dad who shows up just at the end - weren't developed enough. I did like the ending and the closure with the ring but there were some jumps concerning Agnes and Agatha that could have been developed more.
One part that really bothered me was Saul's award winning essay. I get that it was an essay written by a middle grade boy but award winning? It was not good at all...
I think another issue with the book is the abundance of British words and references - not sure my students would understand all of it.
Sorry...it's a croak.
I received this free from Netgalley. I am not required to do a positive review.
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