Monday, 3 December 2012

The Tale of Time Warp Tuesday by Leslie A Susskind (Children's, 9 years +, 9/10)



May 2012, Good Manners Kids Stuff Press
347 pages, Paperback
Review copy 

Themes: being the odd ones out, magic, groundhog day, being royal, being treated differently to everyone else, breaking the rules, not caring about learning followed by wanting to learn, very mean people, beautiful outfits, evil & sneaky villain, various quests - both for actual objects and for inner personality, some major peril, lots of humour 

Summary from Amazon (I don't benefit by mentioning them) 

 In the second of The Zephram Tales (after 'The Month of Zephram Mondays'), Tom, Lizzie, Ned and Nell, the Royal Quadruplets and non-magical Heroes of the magical Kingdom of Zephram, have settled back into their same old boring routines after the excitement of saving Zephram and the rest of the world from evil Prince Persius.

Then, suddenly, the children realize why everything is so incredibly boring: it's because everyone's repeating the same day, over and over again!

Tom, Lizzie, Ned and Nell are the only ones who know what's happening, and it looks like they're the only ones who can do anything about it. But why has it happened? How are four non-magical children going to start the magical world turning again? And what will they find out about themselves in the process? 

Nayuleska's thoughts

After enjoying the 1st book (link in suggested read section) I was eager to get back into the royal children's lives. I totally loved this book more than the first. I suspect that's because I knew the characters (I usually adore 2nd books because I'm returning to worlds I already enjoy). The way the children slowly learn important things through repeating the day over and over and how they unravel some mysteries was a delight to read. It was all very intriguing. I felt so sorry for them when life didn't work out well - I wanted to give them a hug and tell them it would be alright. I was thrilled that dressmaking played a significant role in the book as it's a theme I enjoy reading about.

The reason for giving this book 9/10 is that there were a few occasions the pace was a little too slow for me, it felt wrong that there was a whole two years gap between this and the first book. I felt that the reason behind the time warp would have benefit by taking place several months after the first book events.

Make sure you check out Leslie's website 

Suggested read

You simply must read book 1, The Month of Zephram Mondays


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