Review Blog

Oct 31 2012

Time Vandals by Craig Cormick

Omnibus Books, 2012. ISBN 978-1-86291-947-1.
Recommended for 11 to 15 year olds. In an action packed opening, kidnapped teens Mei and Jack begin a time adventure that has them meeting famous historical characters such as Napoleon and Stalin.
Due to their unique set of genes, Jack and Mei are recruited by a secret agency to travel back in time to fix historical errors. At present, Australia is a French colonized country and this is all because Napoleon didn't have hemorrhoids. You'll have to read the novel for this to make sense.
This is a crazy, fun story that jumps between times, has plots that continually twist and turn as well as a bizarre collection of characters. Ixi is their guide and a garden gnome, a gargoyle is also on the loose with its own agenda and there are scary flesh eating Zombies as well.
You'll need to have your wits about you as the time jumping can be confusing but don't take anything too seriously and you will have an entertaining and original reading experience.
This novel might work best in the primary classroom with teacher support as students may not be aware of the historical references in the text. There are teacher notes available.
Jane Moore