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Overview
Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This has never been more true than when he finds himself in his hometown on May 21, 1941, over forty years before his birth!
An accidental time traveler, Johnny knows his history. He knows England is at war, and he knows that on this day German bombs will fall on the town. It happened. It's history. And as Johnny and his friends quickly discover, tampering with history can have unpredictable—and drastic—effects on the future.
But letting history take its course means letting people die. What if Johnny warns someone and changes history? What will happen to the future? If Johnny uses his knowledge to save innocent lives by being in the right place at the right time, is he doing the right thing?
Mixing nail-biting suspense with outrageous humor, Terry Pratchett explores a classic time-travel paradox in Johnny Maxwell's third adventure.
Synopsis
From the pen of Sir Terry Pratchett, beloved and bestselling author of the Discworld fantasy series, comes time-travel adventure that mixes outrageous humor and nail-biting suspense! Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This has never been more true than when he finds himself in his hometown on May 21, 1941, over forty years before his birth! An accidental time traveler, Johnny knows his history. He knows England is at war, and he knows that on this day German bombs will fall on the town. It happened. It's history. And as Johnny and his friends quickly discover, tampering with history can have unpredictable—and drastic—effects on the future. But letting history take its course means letting people die. What if Johnny warns someone and changes history? What will happen to the future? If Johnny uses his knowledge to save innocent lives by being in the right place at the right time, is he doing the right thing? Read more of Johnny Maxwell's adventures in Only You Can Save Mankind and Johnny and the Dead! Changing History: Johnny knows what’s coming, but altering the past could erase the future he knows. Does he have the right to play with time, even to save lives? The Blackbury Blitz: When Johnny and his friends are dropped into the middle of World War II, they have only hours to prevent a bombing raid that will destroy a local street and everyone on it. A One-of-a-Kind Time Machine: Forget fancy labs and flashing lights. This journey through time is powered by a mysterious homeless woman’s shopping cart, filled with… bags of time? Signature British Humor: From the legendary Sir Terry Pratchett comes a tale packed with the witty dialogue and hilarious situations that make even the most serious dilemmas laugh-out-loud funny.Editorials
Children's Literature -
Her unusual name may cause some sophisticated readers to consult the nearest encyclopedia, but even those who do not know that a trachyon is a special particle that is able to travel faster than the speed of light, will quickly learn that Mrs. Trachyon is a strange bag lady. She inadvertently lets a brick fall on an unexploded bomb in England during World War II. Flash forward to 1996, where we meet Johnny and his friends, Bigmac, Yo-less, Wobbler, and Kirsty. When Mrs. Trachyon is involved in an accident, Johnny takes her grocery cart of belongings and her cat Guilty back to his house. When he touches the amorphous bags in the cart, Johnny and his friends find themselves transported back in time to that fateful day when the German bombs hit their town. Johnny, a worrier by nature, discovers that he can take charge when he needs to. Pratchett's concept of parallel worlds, likens them to a pair of trousers: There are two different pantlegs, and each represents a path in time. They are quite similar. For each action we take, there is a consequence that causes the future to go in a certain direction. Each of our actions does matter. More than a lesson in history or physics, this encourages readers to accept that each of us is responsible for our own actions. Pratchett takes on issues such as Black stereotyping with his characteristic humor. Lively characters, humor, and a fascinating plot will make this a popular read. Reviewer: Sharon SalluzzoVOYA -
Johnny and his friends Yo-less, Bigmac, Wobbler, and Kirsty take on time travel in the final volume of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy. When Johnny finds Blackbury's resident bag lady, Mrs. Tachyon, injured in an alley, he gets help for her and keeps her shopping trolley-loaded with garbage bags and an ill-tempered cat named Guilty-in his garage for safekeeping. The bags are literally full of time, and Johnny and the gang can travel in time if they touch them. Johnny wants to try to rescue the occupants of a street in Blackbury who died in an air raid in 1941, and of course, he and the gang run into the issue of changing the future by changing the past, what Pratchett calls the "trouser legs of time" theory. In addition, on their first try, Wobbler gets left behind, resulting in an alternate future for them all. Nevertheless they work it out, assisted indirectly by the aptly named Mrs. Tachyon from her hospital bed. Pratchett is in fine form here; the narrative is briskly humorous and insightful. Johnny has always been an appealing and well-developed character, and now his friends become more rounded and defined characters. Yo-less exhibits his keen intellect more sharply, for example, and Kirsty's forthright manner proves to be one of her flaws as well. Even Wobbler gets to be wiser than he might otherwise appear. Pratchett fans and newbies alike will not be disappointed.KLIATT -
In this time travel adventure, 13-year-old Johnny has nightmares about planes and bombs and at first worries he's going mad. Then he discovers that a bag lady's shopping cart has the power to transport him back in time to 1941, the night a Nazi bomb fell on Paradise Street in his hometown of Blackbury, England. If he and his group of misfit friends can go back and warn people in time to save lives, how will that affect the future? As always, fantasist Pratchett is a delight to read, and this concluding volume in a trilogy about reluctant hero Johnny is both funny and thought provoking as Johnny wrestles with doing the right thing and with understanding the tricky nature of time. The novel, originally published in England in 1996, was short-listed for Britain's Smarties Prize and for the Carnegie Award, and it can stand alone. Americans shouldn't have too much difficulty with the British slang, and all readers will quickly be caught up in the plot.School Library Journal
Gr 5–8
This trilogy ends with a bang. Having stumbled upon a way to travel through time, Johnny knows exactly when a German bomb will be dropped on his English village. Time travel turns out to be tricky, however, as it takes Johnny and his friends several trips to alter history just enough to save their town, but also to ensure that everything stays the same when they return home. Adding to the suspense is the imaginative vehicle of a crazy bag lady's squeaky cart to time travel, often with unpredictable results. The climax is reached at rocket speed as Johnny becomes increasingly aware of the many dimensions of time and ultimately relies on this ability to save the townsfolk. Pratchett deftly weaves alternate realities together to form a satisfying conclusion, keeping confusion at bay by treating the weightier issues of time travel with his trademark humor. Alternating between 1990s Britain and World War II, he offers plenty for thoughtful readers to mull over even as he pokes fun at the genre. While there is little connection to the other books in the series, Johnny's quirky sidekicks are back, each sidesplittingly portrayed and effectively advancing the plot. It is Johnny who cares most about the effect the war will have on his sleepy town, and up until the very last page, readers will, too.
—Emily RodriguezCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
From the Publisher
• "Enormously entertaining and contains more wry observations than you could shake a Heinkel at." —Daily Telegraph• "Thrilling and impressively funny." —Mail on Sunday