Product Description

In a house called Tanglewreck, lives a girl called Silver and her guardian Mrs Rockerbye. Unbeknown to Silver, there is a family treasure in the form of a seventeenth century watch called The Timekeeper, and this treasure holds the key to the mysterious and frightening changes in time. When Silver goes on the run to try and protect herself and The Timekeeper, a remarkable and compelling adventure unfolds full of brilliance and wit, as is befitting an author with the imagination and style of Jeanette Winterson.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1092836 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

From the Inside Flap
The World is in Trouble! Nobody knows what to do when the Time Tornadoes start. Some days are long, some are short. Time stops then jerks forward. People are getting caught in Time Traps - locked in the past, then pushed into the future. Far from the city, in the strange old house Tanglewreck, Silver lives with her bony, bad-tempered aunt, Mrs Rockabye, and hears strange stories about the Timekeeper - an alchemist's watch that could steady Time again, if anyone could find it.

When the sinister Abel Darkwater arrives at Tanglewreck in search of the watch, Silver realises she must begin a journey through Time and Space in search of the Timekeeper, during which she meets a loyal friend, Gabriel, and together they face many dangers and excitements. Can Silver and Gabriel survive the tasks ahead, and reach the Sands of Time before anyone else? And if they do - will the Timekeeper still be there?

About the Author
This is Jeanette Winterson's second book for children. Her first book, King of Capri illustrated by Jane Ray was very well received. Jeanette's first novel, 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' won the Whitbread Award.

Customer Reviews

Times flies when you're having fun!
There is much to like in Winterson's novel for older children (upwards) I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope it might have a sequel some time.

This fast-moving Fantasy/SF novel (it's a bit of both), about the power to control time, owes a lot to Philips Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It has a sparky young heroine, a Mrs Coulter-esque chief baddy who experiments on children, and most importantly, the Timekeeper - the powerful time controlling device that everybody wants. Mix in a dash of quantum physics, teleportation, time travel, an underground world beneath London, an Egyptian temple and a strong supporting cast including a giant rabbit, and you have all the ingredients for a heady adventure full of excitement, thrills, spills and some rather scary moments too.

Silver, our heroine, lives in her old family home - Tanglewreck, with weird Mrs Rokabye as her guardian; her parents and sister had vanished previously. Weird things are beginning to happen with time - it's warping, and time tornadoes have started to suck up and spit out people from different times and places. When Silver and Mrs Rokabye are approached by Abel Darkwater, a clock specialist who is searching for a old clock called the Timekeeper that Silver's father had been custodian of, Mrs Rokabye sees her chance to make a fortune - if only Silver could remember where the clock is ...

As an adult reader, I enjoyed the novel immensely, spotting all the references and influences and chuckling at the way the author warped space/time to work the plot. I think younger readers may be confused with the SF side of things reading it on their own, but it would make a great adventure for reading together; older readers will get the gist and will probably know a little about many of the historical characters mentioned.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Time is not behaving itself. Trains stall in time, then rush ahead as if to catch up, pyramids appear in London, a school bus gets sucked into a Time Tornado and vanishes, and there have been woolly mammoth sightings in the park. Most people can't make any sense of it, and it's getting worse. And the people who do understand it, well, they might be the most dangerous of all.

Silver is an eleven-year-old orphan, alone in the world. Well, not completely alone. She has Mrs. Rockabye, the aunt who mysteriously appeared after the death (or maybe disappearance) of Silver's family. Silver thinks that she'd rather be alone than with Mrs. Rockabye, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon. For now Silver's greatest comfort is her house, Tanglewreck. It comforts her, soothes her, and even speaks to her. She knows about the strangeness of time, but as long as she can stay at Tanglewreck, she doesn't seem to be too concerned.

Abel Darkwater knows about time, and he understands why it's behaving strangely. Abel is sure that time can be controlled, and that whoever controls time will control the universe. Abel intends to be that person. He's sure that all he needs is the Timekeeper. And he's positive that Silver knows where it is. After all, Silver's dad was bringing it to Abel on the day the family died.

Silver is in a race against time, literally, to keep the Timekeeper safe. If only she knew where it was. Or what it was. With the help of her strange, new, old friend, Gabriel, Silver will have to travel to unknown places and times on a quest for something she's never seen.

I've always loved time travel stories, and this one is no exception. This is the first story I've read that has dealt with the actual alteration of time as opposed to the adjustments of the main character inside a particular time. Although that's in here, too. And, I have to say that this is the closest I've ever come to understanding Quantum Theory. (Something I'm sure would be very disappointing to all of the science teachers I've ever had.) Don't let that intimidate you though. Previous knowledge is (obviously) not required. Whether or not you come away with an understanding of that is not really even the point, though a nice side benefit. The point is that this is a very good, interesting, and well-written story. Plain and simple. You should read it.

Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman

Exciting adventure tale for 10-11 yr olds
Looking for something other than Jacqueline Wilson books for my 10 year old daughter to read I came across this.
She was reluctant to tackle it alone so we decided to take it in turns to read a page each and now she can't get enough of it! It helps that the 'heroine' is an 11 year old girl called Silver so she can easily identify with her.
If you're lookng for something a bit different to Tracey Beaker and cutesy animal stories you can't go far wrong with this. Thoroughly recommended.