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American Epochs #1
Time Traitor
Have you ever wished you could go back in time? Where would you go? What would you see? What if you had the power to alter history, to manipulate events and make yourself rich, famous, or powerful? Kristi Connors is too miserable in the present to care about history. Shipped off to boarding school in the midst of her parents' divorce, Kristi wants nothing more than to run home and find her mom and dad together again. In hopes of being kicked out, Kristi causes chaos throughout George Washington Prep, and especially enjoys harassing her brash, ill-tempered history teacher, Dr. Xavier Arnold, with endless pranks. Ty Jordan just wants to be left alone. Sent to GWP by his English stepfather after the sudden death of his mother, Ty dreams of disappearing into the pages of the books he reads, far away from the bullies who torment him at every turn. When the two unlikely friends find themselves in Dr. Arnold’s detention dungeon, they make a startling discovery—their teacher has invented a working time machine! The next thing they know, Kristi and Ty are jettisoned back in time to the Revolutionary War as part of Dr. Arnold’s scheme to change American history in favor of his infamous ancestor and the country’s greatest traitor, General Benedict Arnold. They soon realize their lives in the twenty-first century, a time of cell phones, flat screens, and iPods, weren’t as bad as they’d imagined. But to get home, they must thwart their teacher’s mad scheme while evading slave catchers, surviving bloody battles, and serving as nurses for sick and wounded soldiers. Follow Kristi and Ty on their trek through time in TIME TRAITOR.
182 pages, Paperback
First published December 17, 2013
431 people want to read
About the author
Todd McClimans
4 books16 followersTodd McClimans is an elementary school principal and former fifth grade teacher. He holds bachelor’s degrees in Creative Writing and Elementary Education and master’s degrees in Creative writing and Educational Leadership.
Todd lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and three young children. A self-styled history buff and fantasy nerd, Todd first became interested in writing about American history when teaching his fifth graders the riveting stories of patriots and their struggle for independence during the Revolutionary War. He aims to bring history to life for young readers by writing stories with a careful mixture of historical fact and fantastical story-telling with characters to which children can relate.
Outside of his duties as principal, husband, father, and writer, Todd spends his free time (as sparse as it may be) reading, running, and riding his bike. He is an avid reader of anything fantasy and lists his current favorite authors (a list that is never exhaustive) as Lois Lowry, J.K. Rowlings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, David McCollugh, and George R.R. Martin.
Todd lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and three young children. A self-styled history buff and fantasy nerd, Todd first became interested in writing about American history when teaching his fifth graders the riveting stories of patriots and their struggle for independence during the Revolutionary War. He aims to bring history to life for young readers by writing stories with a careful mixture of historical fact and fantastical story-telling with characters to which children can relate.
Outside of his duties as principal, husband, father, and writer, Todd spends his free time (as sparse as it may be) reading, running, and riding his bike. He is an avid reader of anything fantasy and lists his current favorite authors (a list that is never exhaustive) as Lois Lowry, J.K. Rowlings, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen King, David McCollugh, and George R.R. Martin.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 21, 2014
Middle grade readers will find it easy to connect to the two main characters of Todd McClimans’ historical/sci-fi novel Time Traitor. Kristi and Ty both deal with being outsiders in their own way: one acts out, the other withdraws. But when an obsessed teacher forces them to travel back in time to the Revolutionary War, they must overcome old habits in order to survive and return to the twenty-first century.
Mr. McClimans has made a strong choice in telling this tale from the perspective of Kristi and Ty — an African-American and a relocated Brit. The backgrounds of the teenagers shape each of their responses to life (and war) in the American colonies in 1780. The author doesn’t shy away from the brutality of slavery or ground combat, and he does a fine job of showing that history, even the most painful aspects of it, is more complex than any textbook could capture.
History teachers will find plenty to examine with their students by comparing the novel’s alternate timeline with actual past events. Several familiar American landmarks are featured and a descendant of the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold is at the center of the novel’s plot. (There’s even a cameo by a certain forefather...a passing moment that elicits perfect reactions from the two transported modern-day teenagers.)
This is a strong first book in the American Epoch series. I look forward to future adventures with Kristi and Ty.
Mr. McClimans has made a strong choice in telling this tale from the perspective of Kristi and Ty — an African-American and a relocated Brit. The backgrounds of the teenagers shape each of their responses to life (and war) in the American colonies in 1780. The author doesn’t shy away from the brutality of slavery or ground combat, and he does a fine job of showing that history, even the most painful aspects of it, is more complex than any textbook could capture.
History teachers will find plenty to examine with their students by comparing the novel’s alternate timeline with actual past events. Several familiar American landmarks are featured and a descendant of the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold is at the center of the novel’s plot. (There’s even a cameo by a certain forefather...a passing moment that elicits perfect reactions from the two transported modern-day teenagers.)
This is a strong first book in the American Epoch series. I look forward to future adventures with Kristi and Ty.
July 18, 2014
I was excited to win a copy of Time Traitor and read it with my eight year old son. McClimans is a former teacher who does a wonderful job of weaving history lessons into a compelling, action-packed story full of humor and vivid characters. The first in a series of historical time traveling adventures, Time Traitor is the journey of two young outcasts who travel back to the American Revolution with their cruel, revenge seeking professor. They learn to depend on each other, make connections, and overcome adversity far more difficult that what they had been facing in their own time. My son and I enjoyed reading the book and look forward to the next adventure!
July 3, 2014
This is a perfect read for middle schoolers who are learning about the American Revolution and even adults like me who enjoy great YA books. The plot is really compelling with lots of twists and turns. McClimans takes historical facts and turns them into interesting plot points. You really get a feel for what it was like to live during the American Revolution. He also makes great use of the background of the main two characters: Kristi, an African-American girl and Ty, a British boy. I am going to try to order a set for my school. I'm excited for the next book, which takes place on the Underground Railroad.
April 16, 2014
Great middle school read! It was like Time Warp Trio or Magic Treehouse for older kids, definitely the next step up to keep these readers interested. It was a great combination of a history lesson and action with the characters. This is supposed to be the first of a series, but seeing where the characters ended, I'm not sure how these two will continue on since there was pretty serious closure in the stories. A few of the time traveling aspects are muddled and made up for convenience to the story, but otherwise a really great story.
May 30, 2014
I won this through Goodreads, and I'm really impressed with it. The cover's not great, but the writing and character development is solid. The sense of time and place is well conveyed, and the dialogue is realistic. Looking forward to the sequel!
July 17, 2015
This book opened my eyes to time travel. I had previously read the Infinity Ring series, which did no good to me. But this book in my opinion is one of the best time traveling books on the market right now.
May 11, 2014
I think it was the best book I have read in a while.
August 8, 2018
Time Traitor by Todd McClimans is a riveting tale of misadventure, greed, history, and friendship.
Kristi Connors and Ty Jordan have almost nothing in common except that they both attend the same boarding school, George Washington Prep. And they both have the same history teacher, Dr. Xavier Arnold. One day, after Kristi pulls one of her many practical jokes on Dr. Arnold, she is placed in detention. Following a series of unfortunate events, Kristi discovers one of Dr. Arnold’s big secrets: he has been building and perfecting a time machine!
Meanwhile, Ty decides to do a little research on their teacher and discovers some disturbing news. It turns out that Dr. Arnold is the descendant of the Revolutionary War traitor, Benedict Arnold! Kristi and Ty begin to connect the dots, but not nearly fast enough. When another adult at their school turns out to be in league with Dr. Arnold, Kristi and Ty are unwillingly whisked back in time to the Revolutionary War. Now the two unlikely friends have to skirt battlefields, slave catchers, and more in order to find Dr. Arnold and make their way back home. They also have to stop Dr. Arnold from permanently altering history! Will Ty and Kristi make it in time? Or will they be too late?
Opinion:
The surprising twists and turns and non-stop action of this time-travel novel definitely make it worth the read! Time Traitor not only met my expectations, it blew them out of the water! This book has the capacity to appeal to a larger age group than its designated division of middle-school ages. As a high-schooler, I was wonderfully entertained!
While Ty and Kristi’s family situations are not the best, both of the characters experience growth in maturity and their way of thinking throughout this novel, leading to huge decisions at the end of their journey that neither of them would have been capable of making at the beginning of the story. Dr. Arnold can easily be labeled as the "bad guy" of the story. While he does not demonstrate adequate teaching skills, he teaches us that greed never leads to satisfaction. In his mad quest to alter history, he forgets the consequences that will ensue and becomes blind to everyone but himself.
The plot of this story was nerve-wracking and fun! I was able to keep pace with it and was never bored. Expertly woven into the action scenes and plot twists lies an underlining message that conveys: Our history is history for a reason. We can’t let our past define us because we can’t change it without consequences.
Overall, I thought this book was amazing and deserves a spot on every bookshelf! While it isn’t necessarily a book that teaches history, it is a wonderful masterpiece that anyone would enjoy reading in their spare time!
Reviewed by a LitPick student book reviewer
Kristi Connors and Ty Jordan have almost nothing in common except that they both attend the same boarding school, George Washington Prep. And they both have the same history teacher, Dr. Xavier Arnold. One day, after Kristi pulls one of her many practical jokes on Dr. Arnold, she is placed in detention. Following a series of unfortunate events, Kristi discovers one of Dr. Arnold’s big secrets: he has been building and perfecting a time machine!
Meanwhile, Ty decides to do a little research on their teacher and discovers some disturbing news. It turns out that Dr. Arnold is the descendant of the Revolutionary War traitor, Benedict Arnold! Kristi and Ty begin to connect the dots, but not nearly fast enough. When another adult at their school turns out to be in league with Dr. Arnold, Kristi and Ty are unwillingly whisked back in time to the Revolutionary War. Now the two unlikely friends have to skirt battlefields, slave catchers, and more in order to find Dr. Arnold and make their way back home. They also have to stop Dr. Arnold from permanently altering history! Will Ty and Kristi make it in time? Or will they be too late?
Opinion:
The surprising twists and turns and non-stop action of this time-travel novel definitely make it worth the read! Time Traitor not only met my expectations, it blew them out of the water! This book has the capacity to appeal to a larger age group than its designated division of middle-school ages. As a high-schooler, I was wonderfully entertained!
While Ty and Kristi’s family situations are not the best, both of the characters experience growth in maturity and their way of thinking throughout this novel, leading to huge decisions at the end of their journey that neither of them would have been capable of making at the beginning of the story. Dr. Arnold can easily be labeled as the "bad guy" of the story. While he does not demonstrate adequate teaching skills, he teaches us that greed never leads to satisfaction. In his mad quest to alter history, he forgets the consequences that will ensue and becomes blind to everyone but himself.
The plot of this story was nerve-wracking and fun! I was able to keep pace with it and was never bored. Expertly woven into the action scenes and plot twists lies an underlining message that conveys: Our history is history for a reason. We can’t let our past define us because we can’t change it without consequences.
Overall, I thought this book was amazing and deserves a spot on every bookshelf! While it isn’t necessarily a book that teaches history, it is a wonderful masterpiece that anyone would enjoy reading in their spare time!
Reviewed by a LitPick student book reviewer
August 8, 2018
In Time Traitor by Todd McClimans, the main characters, Kristi Connors and Ty Jordan, are just two kids attending George Washington Prep School. Kristi hates the place and is trying to get herself kicked out by humiliating her history teacher, Xavier Arnold. She rigs up his desk with explosive
fireworks, unscrews his desk chair, and basically just annoys him every waking hour at Washington Prep.
Ty, originally from England, is as timid as a mouse, hiding out from bullies and trying to get his school work done in the unlikeliest of places. When Ty sees Kristi rigging another trap for Arnold, Kristi becomes worried he might snitch. During Arnold’s lesson, his desk explodes and he demands to know who did it. Naturally, if Ty tells on Kristi, she would be expelled, but he sticks up for her, so they become relatively close friends.
When the two of them trace Arnold's family tree back to Benedict Arnold, the American traitor, they become suspicious of something. After Kristi is sent to detention with Mr. Arnold and she hears something strange, she soon realizes what Mr. Arnold has done: made a time machine. Ty soon finds Kristi with Mr. Arnold, but she is scared as she is tied up. Mr. Arnold kidnaps them, bringing them with him on his mission: to rewrite history in his great ancestor's favor.
I really enjoyed Time Traitor because of its twisting turns of the story, the science of the time travel, and the characters’ personalities. In the book, as the characters talk and go about their work, I felt like I was yet another character watching them. The whole concept of time travel amazes me, so this book was a perfect fit for me! I give this book five stars, only because I can’t give it more. I would recommend this book for all ages but for 10-12 in particular. I am definitely going to read the other books written by Todd McClimans if they share but a fraction of the incredible writing!
fireworks, unscrews his desk chair, and basically just annoys him every waking hour at Washington Prep.
Ty, originally from England, is as timid as a mouse, hiding out from bullies and trying to get his school work done in the unlikeliest of places. When Ty sees Kristi rigging another trap for Arnold, Kristi becomes worried he might snitch. During Arnold’s lesson, his desk explodes and he demands to know who did it. Naturally, if Ty tells on Kristi, she would be expelled, but he sticks up for her, so they become relatively close friends.
When the two of them trace Arnold's family tree back to Benedict Arnold, the American traitor, they become suspicious of something. After Kristi is sent to detention with Mr. Arnold and she hears something strange, she soon realizes what Mr. Arnold has done: made a time machine. Ty soon finds Kristi with Mr. Arnold, but she is scared as she is tied up. Mr. Arnold kidnaps them, bringing them with him on his mission: to rewrite history in his great ancestor's favor.
I really enjoyed Time Traitor because of its twisting turns of the story, the science of the time travel, and the characters’ personalities. In the book, as the characters talk and go about their work, I felt like I was yet another character watching them. The whole concept of time travel amazes me, so this book was a perfect fit for me! I give this book five stars, only because I can’t give it more. I would recommend this book for all ages but for 10-12 in particular. I am definitely going to read the other books written by Todd McClimans if they share but a fraction of the incredible writing!
October 17, 2019
Very well done time-travel tale with vivid characters. African American Kristi Connors and Ty Jordan are unhappy at their boarding school -- Kristi because she's bored and angry at her absentee father, and Ty because he'd bullied. When they discover that their obnoxious history professor, Xavier Arnold, once taught physics and has invented a working time machine, things become lots more complicated. Arnold is a descendent of Benedict Arnolsd -- and he means to change history so that Benedict is a hero and not a traitor. This is a fast-moving book with lots of tasty historical details. The developing friendship between Kristi and Ty forms the backbone, but there is action, betrayal, and reverses. Recommended, with a good ending. I'll look for more books by the author.
February 10, 2015
African American Kristi hates her boarding school, so spends her time pranking her teachers and resenting her wealthy father, who compares her to her more accomplished siblings and who has left her mother. British Ty also hates school, where he's endlessly bullied, but he has no parents or home to go back to. Their history professor, Xavier Arnold, hates children (Kristi especially), and is obsessed with building a time machine so he can go back and put his ancestor, Benedict Arnold, in his rightful place at the head of the nation. When Kristi and Ty stumble on his lab, Arnold decides to take them back in time with him; he needs money, and sells Kristi as a slave to get it. Ty and Kristi escape, and with some unexpected help, try to figure out how to spike Arnold's plans. Around them the Revolution is going on, and they get a too-realistic education in the causes and results of war, which helps them understand their own lives better and to make better decisions. Everything gets a little crazy in the endgame, and sequels are planned.
I really want to support small presses, however bad the covers, but I felt quite up and down about this one. It was action packed and I liked the characters (though they were pretty stereotypical), and I thought it was a good notion to make Ty British so that he would be on the fence about the war. There was a lot of infodumping, though--this felt somewhat like an assignment to incorporate the Revolution into a story to teach kids about it, and the characters were forever pointing out what they had learned, in case readers missed it. I was also disturbed by the notion of a teacher blithely planning (and carrying out his plan) to sell his students into slavery, though probably kids won't be as bothered. I'm not up on my Revolutionary history, so I'm just assuming it's accurate. There were several loose ends that bothered me. Such as, did no one in the present bother to worry about what happened to Ty when he didn't return? As well as Arnold?
I really want to support small presses, however bad the covers, but I felt quite up and down about this one. It was action packed and I liked the characters (though they were pretty stereotypical), and I thought it was a good notion to make Ty British so that he would be on the fence about the war. There was a lot of infodumping, though--this felt somewhat like an assignment to incorporate the Revolution into a story to teach kids about it, and the characters were forever pointing out what they had learned, in case readers missed it. I was also disturbed by the notion of a teacher blithely planning (and carrying out his plan) to sell his students into slavery, though probably kids won't be as bothered. I'm not up on my Revolutionary history, so I'm just assuming it's accurate. There were several loose ends that bothered me. Such as, did no one in the present bother to worry about what happened to Ty when he didn't return? As well as Arnold?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2015
Middle grade readers will find it easy to connect to the two main characters of Todd McClimans’ historical/sci-fi novel Time Traitor. Kristi and Ty both deal with being outsiders in their own way: one acts out, the other withdraws. But when an obsessed teacher forces them to travel back in time to the Revolutionary War, they must overcome old habits in order to survive and return to the twenty-first century.
Mr. McClimans has made a strong choice in telling this tale from the perspective of Kristi and Ty — an African-American and a relocated Brit. The backgrounds of the teenagers shape each of their responses to life (and war) in the American colonies in 1780. The author doesn’t shy away from the brutality of slavery or ground combat, and he does a fine job of showing that history, even the most painful aspects of it, is more complex than any textbook could capture.
History teachers will find plenty to examine with their students by comparing the novel’s alternate timeline with actual past events. Several familiar American landmarks are featured and a descendant of the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold is at the center of the novel’s plot. (There’s even a cameo by a certain forefather...a passing moment that elicits perfect reactions from the two transported modern-day teenagers.)
This is a strong first book in the American Epoch series. I look forward to future adventures with Kristi and Ty.
Mr. McClimans has made a strong choice in telling this tale from the perspective of Kristi and Ty — an African-American and a relocated Brit. The backgrounds of the teenagers shape each of their responses to life (and war) in the American colonies in 1780. The author doesn’t shy away from the brutality of slavery or ground combat, and he does a fine job of showing that history, even the most painful aspects of it, is more complex than any textbook could capture.
History teachers will find plenty to examine with their students by comparing the novel’s alternate timeline with actual past events. Several familiar American landmarks are featured and a descendant of the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold is at the center of the novel’s plot. (There’s even a cameo by a certain forefather...a passing moment that elicits perfect reactions from the two transported modern-day teenagers.)
This is a strong first book in the American Epoch series. I look forward to future adventures with Kristi and Ty.
October 24, 2016
Historical fiction time travel about Benedict Arnold, the American Revolution, and changing history.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews