The Time Museum

Time Museum #1

by Matthew Loux

The internship program at the Time Museum is a little unusual. For one thing, kids as young as twelve get to apply for these prestigious summer jobs. And as for the applicant pool . . . well, these kids come from all over history.

When Delia finds herself working at the Time Museum, the last thing she expects is to be sent on time-traveling adventures with an unlikely gang of kids from across the eons. From a cave-boy to a girl from the distant future, Delia's team represents nearly all of human history! They're going to need all their skills for the challenge they've got in store . . . defending the Time Museum itself!

Genres: Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, Time Travel, Science Fiction, Comics, Adventure, Fantasy

250 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2017

Reviews

[izzy of the hollow †]

*𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥*
ˏˋ ⁀➷ fun fact 😆~

ੈ✩‧₊˚ i met the author of this book at a camp 🏕️ like 6 years ago & he not only signed this book, but he drew all my favorite characters from it on the inside cover ( it's a graphic novel ) ✏️

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ little me was thrilled 🫠📖

[First Second Books]

Follow Delia in her summer internship where she is to be sent on time-traveling missions with an unlikely gang of kids from across the eons. From dinosaurs to the burning of the Library of Alexandra—this thrilling, visually dazzling new series the perfect middle-grade adventure!

[Marta Boksenbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much fun! I love the time travel interns premise, it's so silly. I also like the message of teamwork and that the characters got to run around figuring stuff out. Also how can you not love the hard core science nerd female lead? We don't get enough of those!

[Jennifer Bacall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent Middle Grade read. It should find an audience for kids who enjoy history, Dr. Who and time travel. Unfortunately there isn't much diversity in the characters and it easily could've been incorporated.

[Elias Libby-Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED IT. CANT WAIT 4 THE NEXT 1

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll be honest: I had no desire to actually read this book. I did so solely for a book club discussion so I think the fact that I came out of it with a three star rating is pretty good! The story is fine, just not the kind of story I seek out. I imagine it’s well-suited for a middle grade audience, but it’s not the type of book that speaks to all ages. It wasn’t a terrible way to spend my time, though.

[Suzanne Dix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fabulous! A great time travel adventure with 6 kids from different centuries all believing that they are competing for one position at the Time Museum. Starting out as competitors but quickly realizing there is strength in numbers, the group manages to save the day (past, present and future!).

Great addition to any graphic novel collection. Watch for a series.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delia thinks she is just heading to her uncle’s house for the summer, but instead finds herself competing for an internship at the Time Museum, a museum that contains items from across human history. There are other teens competing against her, including a girl from future Japan who loves robots, a boy from ancient Rome, and a boy from the far past. While the internship at first seems to focus on physical fitness and school work, quickly the missions become real time travel. Each mission judges the interns individually as competitors, but they quickly learn that they need to work together to survive traveling through time!

Loux is the author of several award-winning graphic novels. In this latest work, he has created a world where history and the future mingle. Time travel wristbands, magical stones, and body-free brains all appear on the pages, each more wonderful than the last. It’s a setting where you are never sure what the next adventure will contain and that makes it immensely appealing.

Loux’s art adds to that appeal. His characters are vibrant and charming. Even the villainous character is complicated and has a clear history with others in the story. Delia herself is perhaps the most straight-forward character which makes the book an exploration of those around her even as Delia discovers her own bravery and ingenuity on the page.

Clearly the first in a series, this graphic novel has mass appeal and plenty of smarts. Appropriate for ages 10-13.

[Adele Broadbent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delia Bean loves science, facts, history - everything. Her Uncle thinks she is definitely smart enough to apply for an internship at an amazing Earth Time Museum. It holds Earth's history (past, present and future.)

Uncle Lyndon tells her that he is in fact a time traveler and curator of the museum and he wants her to join 5 others from different times in history to go through 3 tests to determine who will work at the museum. This is better than Delia's wildest dreams for her future.

Their tasks include finding specimens, spotting things, people, objects etc that don’t belong in that time and capturing them and learning about important historical events. Delia soon makes friends but when something goes terribly wrong, Delia is to blame.

Will she lose her friends and her chance at her dream job?

Fantastic full colour illustrations and intriguing adventures!

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice effort, but just a bit too generic for me.

[Michael Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really fun time travel book that I will be recommending to patrons. My only gripe would be some weird facial expressions and the first third being a little too wordy.

[Kelly Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was bothered by some sexist cliches and stereotypes, and how all the females had waists the same sizes as their wrists, while the boy characters were more varied.

[Matt Graupman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m always on the lookout for fun YA graphic novels to pass along to my sons. They’re already huge comics fans (and big time readers of “regular” books, as well) but I like to take every opportunity to reinforce that hobby. Also, if I’m being totally honest, I really enjoy them, too; there are a lot of wonderful, fun comics out there that serve as great palate cleansers for me, in between the more heavy or mature stuff (comics or prose) that I tend to gravitate towards. To this pool of work, I can now add Matthew Loux’s “The Time Museum,” a romp in every sense of the word: bright, energetic, and playful.

Delia Bean, the precocious preteen at the center of “The Time Museum,” is your fairly typical YA protagonist: smart as a whip, always ready for a new adventure, and just a little bit insecure. She thinks that she’s doomed to spend her summer vacation babysitting her brother but is shocked and delighted when she discovers that she’s actually going to compete for a coveted internship at her eccentric uncle’s Earth Time Museum, a magical repository for all the artifacts from the entire course of the planet’s history. With all of Time to play with, Loux does his best to cram as much into “The Time Museum” as he possibly can; dinosaurs, ancient Romans, robots, humans from the future, etc. all get a turn, creating a chaotic and anachronistic playground for Delia and her fellow internship candidates. Sometimes it works, like with the cute lil robotic cats that act as library assistants in the Museum; other times it misses the mark a bit, like the dinosaurs that inexplicably have mohawks of wild, frizzy hair. Loux keeps it all together for the most part, though, avoiding a lot of the rote cliches of the genre. Most of the candidates are well fleshed out and there’s enough of a cliffhanger mystery to keep the reader eager to come back; Loux even manages to slip in a little message about acceptance, teamwork, and forgiveness. Definitely all things I’d be happy for my sons to absorb.

Peppy, informative, and well-intentioned, “The Time Museum” is a great little YA title, for kids and/or adults. Despite a few minor flaws, Loux’s charming book is a great beginning to what I hope is an amusing - dare I say timeless? - series.

[Nancy Kotkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full-color middle grade graphic novel series opener about a group of teens from different time periods who learn to time travel. Though they're told they are competing for a single internship spot within The Time Museum, the characters bond while preparing for their trials and conducting fieldwork, and the group members learn the value of teamwork. Fast-paced with lots of action. It could use a bit more character depth, both individually and within relationships, but that is challenging with an ensemble cast of six major characters. Even with an intriguing unresolved mystery, the story's major conflict is resolved and the ending is satisfying. The art is very attractive and incorporates important elements not included within the written narrative, so that this book achieves that marriage between text and art that graphic novels rely upon to be truly successful.

[Crystal books_inthewild · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good graphic novel for lovers of fantasy, science and history.

The illustrations didn’t quite appeal to my students- they weren’t quite “real” enough and not quite “silly/comic” enough… somewhere in between, and my students didn’t connect with the characters the same as they do with others.

There were a few issues, when I felt it wasn’t quite appropriate for middle grade (did the characters really need to play strip poker?)

I did enjoy the premise- and the overall story- but not quite a hit for us.

[Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is a very good book my favorite part was when Delia was a giant projection and scared the dinosaurs

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very clever and fun kids graphic novel about teamwork.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wildly entertaining story about time travel and team bonding. The illustrations, created using a drafting lead holder and HB drawing leads, inked in Winsor & Newton black India ink with several Series 7 sable brushes (size 0), and colored digitally in Photoshop, are very colorful and cartoonish.

interesting quotes:

"'Who knew a bug that eats poo could be so interesting.'
'Tell me about it!'" (p. 13)

"'Uncle Lydon's great!'
'How do you figure?'
'He does all kinds of things. He's taken me to every museum in the city and all the botanical gardens! He even got me my first library card!'
'Do you even know what fun means?'" (p. 19)

"All girls are suckers for Jane Austen." (p. 147)

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Totally solid fun. Doesn't do my favorite time travel things, but still a good read.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost think I should give this 5-stars because I liked it so much AND it's a GRAPHIC NOVEL. (The only other graphic novels I've liked are "Drama" and "El Deafo." ). This is the first in a series about kids who are trying to earn a coveted internship at the very secret Museum of Time, where they would be tasked with preserving eras of time. It's lots of fun, funny, and just overall well done.

[Siina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Time Museum is a very creative comic! It's approachable scifi for kids with time travel, friendship and cooperation as its main topics. The Time Museum is a museum of all the times on Earth and they acquire their collection by time traveling, which is very awesome. Delia and five others from different time periods end up competing over an internship in the museum and they must solve mysteries of sorts to understand the true meaning behind working together. I really liked the earl part and how he was making this comic way much more interesting by adding the possibility of a bad guy mixed with the bigger mystery - what he actually has to do with the museum. In a way there are two levels then and it works, since the group's adventures alone are basic stuff. The plot works well, although the beginning is quite slow and the parts with the earl aren't as clear as the rest of the story. These would've needed more pages to make them understandable. Same thing with the rock and future London, it was over before it even started.

The art is very funky and the colors are great too. In a sense the comic is girly, but I do like that fact - we don't have that many comics with topics like this for girls and that's a shame. Delia is a great character even though the others don't have enough persona yet, but I'm content Loux fixes that. The panels are a bit too stuffed and the text walls aren't the best solution, which makes the comic messy at times. Overall the comic is OK and works - I'm glad there's going to be continuation to the story!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and adventurous - I think this will find its audience without any problems.

Thanks to the publisher for a digital advance reader's copy, provided via NetGalley.

[Xanthe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun romp about kids learning to travel through time as interns for the Time Museum that regulates temporal anomalies and collects exhibits on the history of the Earth. However, serious demerits for the lack of diversity. Composing a team of kids from throughout history is an opportunity to get kids from all places and eras, not just collect a Canadian, an American (from NYC, of course), a Scot, an Caucasian (smart) Neanderthal, an ancient Roman, and one Japanese girl from the future. This detracted from the elements that I really enjoyed, such as montages of the kids studying hard and learning teamwork and all the requisite timey-wimeyness.

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun adventure with a great female lead. Young Delia discovers that her family is associated with a museum of time, a place where all of earth's history is recorded. She also discovers that she is in the running for a coveted internship at the museum.

Thus begins a series of challenges that will test Delia and the
e other candidates travel throughout time solving challenges and preventing disasters. A great start to a new series

[Charli · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a kids book so I guess it serves its own purpose of enjoyment but the plot holes were humongous and every single character was drawn annoyingly skinny (except the cave man, go figure). Also, would it kill this writer to add more black people? Maybe ones that aren’t getting help from the white girl so they don’t have to take summer school? It’s mind boggling to me that this is up for the Black Eyed Susan award.

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fantastic concept, poor execution.

What I want from a time travel story is tons of fun timey wimey stuff, this did not deliver. The kids are given 3 tasks to earn a coveted spot as an intern for the museum. The task weren't very exciting and there isn't a whole lot on the line, especially the second one, flip through books at a library (I'm a librarian and I thought this was lame).

I'm also not a huge fan of this art style were everyone is overly cartoony and they all look the same.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one I ended up enjoying more than I thought I would based on the summary & cover...but it still would have been nice if it incorporated more diverse perspectives from history and characters for that matter (thus three, and not a four...) Definitely has potential though, and even made me laugh out loud in a few spots. The time loop was also a fun addition.

[nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wasn't a fan of this one as a whole, although some of the panels were hysterical. Too many elements went too smoothly and the final twist still wasn't enough to make me want to read the second. But this book has not been on the shelf since it arrived at school, bouncing from one reader to the next by word of mouth, so clearly it's working for the intended age group.

[Lys · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very cute graphic novel! I'm a sucker for any story where a team of different types of people learn to work together towards a common goal. The illustrations are fun and I think my students will really enjoy this one. There were some plot holes and rushed pacing, but other than that this is a fun, quick read!

[Mary Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun! In this graphic novel, Delia is offered a chance at a time travel internship in the Earth Time Museum. In a series of adventures, she learns to work with and befriends the other would be interns. I liked the story, the mysterious Grey Earl, and the message of teamwork and cooperation. And I liked the drawings! Can’t wait for part 2.