The History Keepers: The Storm Begins by Damian Dibben (Children's, 9 years +)

September 2011, Doubleday Children's 

464 pages, Hardback 

Review copy 

Children's, 9 years +

Themes: time travel, family separation, tragedy, living in different eras of history, secrets, lies, subterfuge, snakes (just what is it with villains and snakes?) lots of thrills, heaps of humour especially at the darkest moments

Summary from Random House Children's Books

Imagine if you lost your parents - not just in place, but in time. 

Jake Djones' mum and dad have gone missing and they could be anywhere in the world - at any time in history. Because the Djones family have an astonishing secret, which for years they've managed to keep - even from each other. They belong to the HISTORY KEEPERS: a secret society which travels through the centuries to prevent evil enemies from meddling with History itself. 

In the quest to find his parents, Jake is whisked from 21st Century London to 19th century France, the headquarters of the mysterious History Keepers, where he discovers the truth about his family's disappearance - and the diabolical Prince Zeldt's plan to destroy the world as we know it. 

Nayuleska's thoughts

Jake is quite bold, uses his head (most of the time), is quick on his feet and adapts to the situation. He sometimes lets his heart rule his head. I absolutely love all his friends, they each have distinctive personalities which had me laughing away, even when I couldn't see a way out for them. I even love how nasty the villains are, they made me want to hide out of sight because their plans are extremely evil. 

I'm given this 9/10 because initially I didn't feel there was a lot of conflict at the beginning. I confess to skim reading a few pages at the end because I'm pretty terrified of snakes and my imagination is already good enough in that area of the animal kingdom.

Check out The History Keepers website, where you can play fun games and learn lots more about the characters. 

Suggested read

Do try out the equally hilarious The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan