Stealing Time. Anne Dublin. Toronto, ON: Dundurn, 2014. 143 pp., trade pbk., ePub & PDF, $9.99 (pbk.), $8.99 (EPub), $9.99 (PDF). ISBN 978-1-45970-973-7 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-45970-975-1 (EPub), ISBN 978-1-45970-974-4 (PDF). Grades 3-6 / Ages 8-11. Review by Tara Stieglitz. ***1/2 /4 Reviewed from Advance Reading Copy.

excerpt:

The watch was drawing Jonah in, pulling him with a wanting he had never known before. He took a big breath. His fingers closed around the watch and he shoved it into his pocket.

His heart pounding in his ears, Jonah hurried back up the stairs to his room. I shouldn’t have taken the watch. I know it was wrong. But I don’t care.

Jonah Wiley has had a rough year. His parents got divorced, and now his dad is remarried and he has a new stepbrother. Jonah is angry and resentful towards his father and rude and surly towards his stepmother and stepbrother, Toby. The only thing that comes close to brightening his mood is his interest in antique clocks and watches. Jonah has always had an interest in old timepieces, and he is especially interested in an old family heirloom, a pocket watch that his grandfather gave to his father and that one day Jonah’s father will give to him. When Jonah takes the pocket watch without permission, he and Toby get inadvertently launched into a time travelling adventure.

     The action of the novel starts quickly, and the pace never slows down. Each chapter features Jonah and Toby launched into a different time and place in history. The only thing tying all these disparate times and locations together is an involvement with the history of time keeping. Jonah and Toby travel to ancient Egypt and witness the creation of a sundial, they travel to England where the meet the men who solved the problem of how to determine longitude while at sea, and they travel to the National Research Council in 1950s Ottawa to see Canada’s first atomic clock. During their adventure, Jonah comes to appreciate and even like his new stepbrother as the two learn to work together to solve problems and get back home.

     Stealing Time is an exciting adventure novel, and the historical details of time keeping are fascinating and well-researched. The book also includes a glossary that defines the more technical terms used in the novel. Stealing Time is recommended for public and school libraries.

Highly Recommended.

Tara Stieglitz is a librarian at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, AB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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