In the Keep of Time

In the Keep of Time #1

by Margaret J. Anderson

Four children slip into the past and then the future while exploring an ancient Scottish tower.

This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Genres: Fantasy, Time Travel, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile, Middle Grade

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

Reviews

[Anne (w/ an E) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might have been my favorite book when I was 10 yrs old. I would definitely read it again. I am going to try interlibrary loan because I don't think I need to OWN it.

[Carolynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first this seems like an ordinary time slip book, with the young protagonists, Elinor, Andrew, Ian, and Ollie, going back to the time of James II of Scotland through the use of a key to the keep of an ancient Scottish castle. There were some puzzling inconsistencies (the key works sometimes, other times not; one character identifies with people of the past, the others do not, etc.), and the setting and period were not fully developed. There are fewer than 150 pages. However, it takes a turn about two thirds of the way through and becomes much more intriguing as the children stumble into the future. This book was written more than 30 years ago, but shows some prescience in its interpretation of future events. There is an environmental aspect to the story that seems ahead of its time (1977). 3 1/2 stars, really, because it fails to live up to its potential, but is more than run of the mill fantasy.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four English children, Andrew, Elinor. Ian and Olivia (Ollie), are taken from London to Scotland to stay with their Aunt Grace while their parents travel to France. Their father has fond memories of staying in the area when he was a boy--enjoying the countryside and especially playing around the ancient ruin of Smailholm Tower. The children, who are all city kids through and through, anticipate a very boring stay. Little do they know the adventures that await them when their aunt gives them the key to the tower and it happens to be glowing....

When the key glows, the door to the tower opens to another time and the children find themselves in the the time of King James II of Scotland who is marching on the area to attack the English at Roxburgh Castle. The children experience several adventures--including the battle before making it back to their time, but Ollie doesn't seem to be the same. They make another trip through time and make some interesting discoveries about their aunt Grace.

I really enjoyed this when I read it back in the late 70s. I loved the fantasy/time travel elements which are very reminiscent of the Narnia books with the children stepping through a doorway into another world. Only this time they travel to different historical periods in their own world. Anderson vividly depicts the various time periods and it is evident she did her research on the 1400s. It is a fascinating book for children. ★★★

Spoiler ahead!

Reading this as an adult, I find a certain portion of the plot to be pretty disturbing. Ollie goes through the time portal first and is separated from the others. When they go through in order to look for her, they find a girl who looks like their Ollie already established in a family of peasants. They call her Mae and claim that she was born and raised there. Here's the thing--if that story is true, then where is the real Ollie? The children take Mae back with them--but she's obviously not the same little girl they knew before. Ollie was a voracious reader and this girl can barely get through Dick and Jane. It seems to me that the real Ollie may be lost somewhere in time...

First posted on my blogMy Reader's Blog.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently rediscovered this book, having read it as a child. I'd probably have given it four stars, but I can't bear to give it any less than five as it is one of the first books I remember reading. It informed my love of fantasy, a genre that still fills me with excitement. In The Keep of Time is the story of four siblings who spend the summer with their aunt in the Scottish countryside and discover an old castle keep that is a portal through time. Upon reading this again as an adult, I'd classify it more as fantasy/science fiction. Over all, it's a good little read, though I haven't convinced my children of that yet.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had found this in 5th grade; I would have enjoyed it much more. I had a Scholastic edition of In the Circle of Time (although I remember having book fairs, I think this was more likely a Weekly Reader book that you ordered from a slim little catalog of books that was a printed on cheap newsprint) which I read and re-read. I knew even as a kid that there was another book in the series, because there are characters from a previous novel that characters in the book talked about. But it wasn’t until I was an adult that I had an inkling to search out that book - In the Keep of Time , and now I’ve finally read it. It’s an ish book - good, but not great. Her characters seem to be caught up in the plot without a lot of character building; it needed to be a longer book to give us time to get to know them better. This also seemed to have a The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe thing going on, what with the two brothers and two sisters mysteriously whisked off to another place (in this case, another time). That wasn’t always successful; Lewis is able to make his four children unique characters, while Anderson’s kids are more smudgy, with just some distinction around the edges. If you found an old paperback and started reading it, I certainly woudl recommend that - but mostly because of my love for her second timeslip novel (there is a third one, but I haven’t read that yet).

[Corina Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing and thought provoking time travel children's story where the past is interestingly presented, yet without sentimentalism. Considering it was first published over 40 years ago, the view from the future of our present "Technological Society " makes for eerie reading.

[kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a strange and somewhat sad little time travel story that I read as a kid and have never forgotten. So much of the detail and description has stuck with me for all these years.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kids and portals through time, adventures and misadventures ensue.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've managed to read Margaret Anderson's kids'/YA trilogy in reverse order but, the way the three books are structured, this is actually not a problem. Where volumes #2 and #3 tell the two sides of the same story (and I found this a fascinating exercise), In the Keep of Time involves a quite different adventure and, for the most part, quite different kids in a quite different era. Unsurprisingly, it's the least fully formed of the trio, but it's still good reading.

Andrew and Elinor and younger siblings Ian and Olivia (Ollie) are sent for the summer to live with elderly Aunt Grace in the Scottish borders. Aunt Grace is part-time custodian of a ruined border keep nearby, Smailholm Tower. One day the kids notice her key to the place looks different -- glowing silver rather than a matte black -- and as they turn the key to enter the keep they find themselves cast back to 1460, where James II (the real James II, not James VII & II) is repelling the sassenachs. Andrew, Elinor and Ian are unchanged by the transition but, interestingly, Ollie "becomes" the Scottish peasant girl Mae, complete with an ignorance and backstory that place her existence very firmly in this earlier time.

After adventures, the kids get back to the present day . . . but Ollie is still Mae, and much effort must be put into educating her to fit her place in the modern world. A weak point of the book is that the other three kids seem improbably unconcerned as to what might have happened to the "real" Ollie meanwhile. Eventually, though, their consciences start to twinge; and luckily the key adopts that mysterious glow once more . . .

This time, however, instead of returning them to 1460 the keep/key time device hurtles them into the future world of the other two novels. Here they help the old woman Vianah (who features in the other two books, where she recalls them fondly). This time on return to their present they discover Mae is now once more Ollie, as if the real Ollie had been there all the time within her but hiding behind a curtain, or something.

As I imply above, this is a less satisfying tale than its two successors, but it nevertheless has lots going for it. The business with Ollie/Mae was interesting and original; but even more so is a subplot in 1460 where Andrew befriends and is befriended by a youth of his own age called Cedric. Cedric is mad keen to fight at the Battle of Roxburgh alongside the men, and Andrew facilitates this -- only to witness, close up, Cedric's death on the battlefield. It's a powerful moment -- in books for the young you don't expect sympathetic characters of the readers' own age group to be butchered -- and a strong reminder that battles aren't actually romantic adventures or merely scenes of gallantry: they kill people, good and bad alike.

Between this novel and the rest of the trilogy Anderson published an unrelated time-travel story, To Nowhere and Back (1975), which I'll be reading soon. I'm looking forward to it.

[Sarah Monsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spend most of my reading time these days reading just published or soon-to -be published books. Recently, however, I went back to this favorite from my childhood. You never know how something you loved as a child will strike you when you read it again. I thoroughly enjoyed reading In the Keep of Time again.

It’s a familiar set up; four children, two boys and two girls find themselves in Scotland for the summer with a relative they don’t really know who will take care of them while they are away. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe the children begin in the English countryside and are transported to Narnia. In Swallows and Amazons, The Penderwicks, and The Boxcar Children, the children are this side of the pond and manage to have adventures simply by being left on their own in the real world. In the Keep of Time, as the title suggests, is an ancient castle that with the help of a magical key transports the children back in time to the 15th century. The only trouble is that the youngest one, Ollie, seems to have had her body and mind meshed with a little girl from that time.

Readers who enjoy history will enjoy this book. The scenes vividly depict the way of life for the Scots in the 15th century, and the children get caught up in a time of raids and battles between the Scotts and the English. There’s also a good bit of tension involved when it comes to the question of whether or not they’ll be able to make it back to their own time.

I figured it would be out of print as my old Scholastic copy is from 1977. It is out of print, though there are used copies to be had. It is also available in Kindle format, as is one of the two sequels. I found the second sequel, though not the original two books, in my library network.

[Leigh Teale · Rating 3 out of 5]

IN THE KEEP OF TIME was an entertaining read for a rainy afternoon. It centers around four children who are dropped off at their great aunt’s house in Scotland for the summer while their parents go off to France. Their aunt lives near and watches after a ruin called Smailholm Tower; she gives the children the key to explore it like their father did before them. When they venture in for the first time, though, their youngest sister Ollie falls through some mist and ends up back in time. The other three have to go back to find her and consequently run across a battle between the English and the Scotsmen.

Their adventure doesn’t end in the past, however. The future makes an appearance as well, though I thought that part of the book wasn’t as well done. The trip to the future felt more like a lecture on how we as a species are engineering our own rapid destruction (which we are, but I don’t need a couple of chapters taken out of a book to tell me that). In addition, the switch back and forth between Ollie and Mae was never satisfactorily explained.

If the Ollie-Mae paradox had been solved a little better and the future trip had been saved for another book I would rate this book 4.5 because the first 75% of the book was really good. As it is, though, I have to give it 3.5 stars instead. There are apparently other books in the series, but they seem like they follow different children and may or may not actually be related to Smailholm Tower. I won’t be reading them, but the whole time I was reading this one I had the urge to revisit A WRINKLE IN TIME.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book in late primary school, and was delighted to find it stood up to rereading decades later. Centred around Smailholm Keep on the Anglo-Scottish border, four 1970s siblings expecting a boring summer holiday with their aunt find themselves instead navigating the strange landscapes and customs of 1460s Scotland and find they have to rely on their wits and each other if they want to get home. If they want to get home.

This is a tightly-written, medium-paced novel suitable for kids in the 10-12 age range. The older kids are making tough decisions about how to look after themselves and their siblings without the benefit of being heroes - just scared but capable pre-teens.

Modern kids (unlike me when I first read it) can also jump on Google maps and see Smailholm Keep for themselves.

Content note for younger readers: mild violence One of the children is attacked by and kills a wolf, and makes a friend who dies in a battle. Gender roles of the 1460s are frustrating to the older girl. Adults are either neutral or supportive of the children.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another old childhood favourite which has recently been released for Kindle. Four city kids from London have been forced by their parents to spend a summer living with their Aunt Grace in the Scottish countryside. Aunt Grace lives near the mysterious ruins of an old keep. Once the children discover the mysteries of the keep, they're not so bored anymore.

I'm impressed with the literary quality of Margaret J. Anderson's books. She writes an engaging story AND expands the vocabulary of the ordinary kid. I was 9 or 10 when I first read and loved her books. I think this one holds up well--the lives of the main characters aren't that much different from the lives of today's kids (especially since they've been sent to the country to escape all the modern electronic trappings).

[Crizzle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good fantasy read for 3rd - 7th graders (depending on reading level). Reminded me a bit of The Chronicles of Narnia. One nagging thought I was left with at the end - the back of the book reads, "Will they find Olivia? Or has she disappeared forever?" So.... apparently she disappeared forever?? And her siblings are just fine with this?? And all her parents notice is that the new Olivia has an accent?

The book was written in the '70s, and I appreciated how the author kind of predicted global warming and the melting of the polar caps, flooding, etc.

[Myranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fabulous third grade teacher was reading this to my class in, um...1979(?), and I was enthralled! I have spent 25 years with fragments of the story periodically running through my mind, before a friend on an email group helped me rediscover the title:-)
I found a used copy on amazon.com and am so excited to read it with my own children:-)

[Lara Eakins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I read in junior high and I tracked down again (25 years later). I didn't remember a whole lot of the plot beyond the basics, but I enjoyed reading it again. I've ordered two more of her books that appear to be related to this one that I didn't read when I was younger, but now I'm intrigued by some of the threads from this book that seem to be picked up in the later ones.

[Jana Fournier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this as a child and being totally enthralled.

[Sade · Rating 5 out of 5]

still remains my all time best time travel for kids. Read it when I was 14 now am 36 and I still can't get over the experience.

[Michelle Stangarone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. I have read about 6 times, first time being when I was about 10. I have also read it aloud to my children. It is one of my all time favorites.

[Ruth E. R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wonderful concept but the ending was poorly carried out.

[Mark Lacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad, but ending was not satisfying, and some of story was not important to the plot

[Kim Rigby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as a child and would love yo read again, as I'm a sucker of time travel books!

[Amy Peters Karp · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this as a kid so I bought it to read with my daughter. Unfortunately it wasn't as exciting as I remembered.

[Gabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining, thought-provoking, and ahead of its time!

[Ingrid Jonach · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG - this was one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE BOOKS as a kid. Enough said.