Torn

xxpish - The fourth book in The Missing; Jonah and Katherine are sent to 1611 to fix (and save) the year 1600. Jonah is supposed to act like John Hudson, Henry Hudson’s son on his ship The Discovery. With a futuristic exact John Hudson costume being worn by Jonah, he is the perfect John Hudson and Katherine is invisible. With a planned mutiny of Henry Hudson onboard, Jonah and Katherine need to figure out how to save history. Henry Hudson surrenders to the mutineers and agrees to go on a shallop with a few other shipmates to find the Northwest Passage. After they narrowly escape an iceberg, they see the ship coming back for them from the south when it was headed North. Then they spot the Northwest Passage. Second is at the helm and changing history up. So, after Jonah is put in the stocks and they find out one of the men is Second, they go back in time to where they were in the shallop trying to make things right and not be forced by Second’s hand. Will history fall apart, or will they succeed in making things right? What I thought about it Margaret Peterson Haddix is a wonderful author. She writes books in a way that you can see what’s happening clearly with your imagination. I discovered her from Into The Gauntlet, the tenth 39 Clues book. Then I read Found and Sent and loved those so I said, “Why not continue the series?” So I did with Sabotaged and Torn. It took me a long time to read both of them and I was actually anxious to finish and get on with another book. Sabotaged in my opinion was pretty confusing in some parts; I liked it, but there are so many things happening, that at one point it just confuses you. I had similar feelings with Torn, but it was slow-paced and didn’t have enough action. I have started reading the next one and I hope it will be better. I was sort of disappointed that Haddix made me want to finish to read something else. I hope she redeems herself with some other good books in the series.

July 1, 2011

The fourth installment of this enjoyable time-travel series for preteens takes readers to a lesser-known historical event than those in the earlier books: the mutiny on Henry Hudson's ship, the Discovery, in 1611.

Jonah and Katherine land on board the icy ship just when the mutineers cast Hudson and his remaining loyal crewmembers adrift, never to be seen again. However, "Second," the rogue time traveler from the previous episode (Sabotaged, 2010) takes charge again, trying to get the children to fix the damage he's done to time, or so he says. As Katherine remains invisible, Jonah takes on a disguise as Hudson's teenage son, which forces him to climb the rigging on the ship and to deal with the egomaniacal Hudson and treacherous, starving crewmen. When Second allows Hudson to find the elusive Northwest Passage, the children begin to worry that time can't be repaired. Fortunately, Haddix has another sci-fi trick up her sleeve and keeps the story suspenseful and tight. Jonah appears to be maturing a bit, although he still has trouble with his impulse control. Best of all, the story feels like real history, with believable characters and plausible events. It will likely spark interest in young readers, especially with help from the afterword, which directly addresses middle schoolers.

Another action-filled and suspenseful historical thriller. (Science fiction. 8-12)

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September 1, 2011
Grades 5-8 Time-fixing siblings Katherine and Jonah are in the middle of frigid James Bay in 1611, where Jonah is acting as a live stand-in for explorer Henry Hudson's son. This is all treacherous Second's fault: he has so completely destabilized Time that there are no guarantees that Jonah and Katherine can preserve history. If they don't, it means the end of them as well as their friends still trapped in 1600. Hudson's ill-fated explorations provide an excellent opportunity for readers to learn about sailing ships, survival, and mutiny. Plenty of action and an extended author's note sustain this fourth entry in the Missing series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)