Timesnatch

by Robert Swindells, Jon Riley (Illustrator)

Once a creature is extinct, it's gone for ever, isn't it?

Not any more - as a butterfly from the past proves. The physicist mother of Kizzy Rye and Fraser Rye has invented an amazing time machine that can travel back into the past, snatch a plant or animal now extinct and bring it back into the present.

It's a wonderful achievement, a real scientific breakthrough. But the machine - 'Rye's Apparatus' - has a horrifying potential. Suddenly Kizzy and Fraser find themselves caught up in a terrifying spiral of events - events that lead finally to a monstrous demand from a sinister and violent organization...

WINNER OF THE 1995 EARTHWORM AWARD, 7-11 YEAR-OLD CATEGORY

Genres: Science Fiction, Childrens, Time Travel, Adventure

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Robert Swindells was born in Bradford in 1939, the eldest of five children. He left the local Secondary Modern School at fifteen to work as a copy holder on the local newspaper. At seventeen he enlisted in the RAF and served for three years, two in Germany. On being discharged he worked as a clerk, engineer and printer until 1969 when he entered college to train as a teacher having obtained five 'O' levels at night-school. His first book 'When Darkness Comes' was written as a college thesis and published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1972. In 1980 he gave up teaching to write full time. He likes travelling and visits many schools each year, talking and reading stories to children. He is the secutatry of his local Peace Movement group. Brother in the Land is his first book for Oxford University Press. He is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Bradford.

Author description taken from Brother in the Land.

Reviews

[Mae !!!!! · Rating 3 out of 5]

-SPOILERS-



Those men scared me.
BILBO GOT WHAT WAS COMING TO HIM I HATED HIM SO MUCH HOW CAN YOU BE SO YOUNG AND NOT HAVE ENOUGH OF A LIFE TO STALK AND SPY ON YOUR BEST MATE
Kizzy is so cool she's such an icon you go girl honestly she could've handles that whole shenanigan by herself she's so much like her mother (WHO IS ALSO AWESOME!!)
Fraser was so real for just wanting to punch Bilbo but honestly he was smart too for whipping out that ancient relic of a gun
I too would bring back butterflies
THE FANGIRLS SAVED THE DAY I LOVED THAT PART I DIDN'T EXPECT IT
All the characters are so well developed and so complicated that you end up either loathing them (Bilbo), being creeped out by them (just the men in general), or love them (Kizzy and Harper ofc), and his writing makes you feel and understand all the emotions the characters are feeling in a moment
The storyline was so unpredictable but I loved it

[Wendy Sice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great little story about a time machine and what happens when people find out you have one! Read this in an hour. Predictable but satisfying.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A benevolent scientist, working on her own, invents a time machine that can snatch living creatures from the past. She only shares the invention with her family and uses it to restore recently extinct animals to the wild. Only as the animals get bigger the efforts begin to attract the attention of the military and the press, and it is not always so easy to hide what is happening.

Good adventure by an accomplished children's writer with a fairly predictable ending.

[Jenifer Lavery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating from beginning to end

The time travellers dilemma in one story. Even if your intentions are good can you be sure that everyone else's will be. And you know what they say about the road to hell right?

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so over the top at times, the way characters behaved was just madness. I really wanted more butterfly effect too.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depends who I am reviewing this for. As a young person's book very exciting and fast moving with what I could see would be some interesting discussion points concerning the use of science, the knock on affect of seeking to reintroduce from outside extinct or very ' peaky ' species and our responsibilities regarding confidentiality, justice over power and the lessons of history. As a book I found in a jumble sale which i read in an hour on Monday night cos i couldn't sleep it was passable but then as always Swindells didn't right it for an insomniac middle aged grump.

[The Bookworms Nook · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok read for a children's book. The story is about a physicist and her children. She has invented a time machine which sounds like an exciting premise. I think the writer could have done more with the story to make it more exciting. It just plodded along without much happening.

[Rabeeta Warsi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really admire the cover, its quite intriguing. It is a good book for a 13, 14 year old, when a kid is getting acquainted with sci-fi and related genres. Being a grown up, I think it was a good idea, well written. All the characters were quite entertaining.

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little time travel story. The twist here is that you can't travel in itself but you can snatch, like grabbing plants or animals long since extinct and putting them back on Earth in present day. A great idea with a few dangerous implications. I only wished it was longer.

[Laila · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazing!!!

[Anthony Doolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this is a day when I was fourteen. Brilliant! Ideal if you like scifi/fantasy type books.

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting enough idea but badly executed. Also, the moral of the story is all 'man bad, need to save the planet' and that's just plain boring.

Poor.

[Abdul]

It was s h i t t y.