Time Lions and the Chrono-Loop
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A laugh-out-loud, edge-of-your-seat time-travel adventure perfect for fans of The Last Last-Day-of-Summer and City Spies from New York Times bestseller, Krystal Sutherland.
Twins Pearl and Patrick are no ordinary twelve-year-olds. They’re geniuses, hiding in plain sight, who pull heists all over the world to further their scientific and historical research. Their criminal activity, including grand theft auto and espionage, has made them a regular nuisance to both the CIA and MI5. But it’s all been worth it. They’ve finally achieved their greatest triumph: time travel. Pearl’s Chrono-Loop can take the twins anywhere in time! Their first stop: ancient Egypt, where they even get to see King Tut!
But when they return home, they’re arrested by TIME—The Interdimensional Misconduct Enquiry—a secret organization charged with maintaining the timeline. Turns out Pearl and Patrick didn’t invent time travel, after all—that happened two hundred years ago! And what Pearl did in ancient Egypt—killing a mosquito—could have rewritten history as we know it if not for TIME agents stepping in.
Punishment for disrupting the timeline is 100 years in the Eternal Abyss. But TIME, impressed by the pair, offers them a chance to become agents. Unfortunately, they fail their entrance exam and instead are banned from ever attempting time travel again. Pearl is furious, and when she’s offered another chance at time travel by a rival organization, she takes it! Too late, she realizes she’s been tricked and unwittingly plays a part in replacing the timeline they know with a nightmarish scenario.
Now Pearl and Patrick must clean up the mess they’ve made. But to restore the timeline, they have to go back to the beginning—to Lion Rock—to convince the real inventor of time travel to help them save time and the world.
In this electric time travel adventure steeped in unexplored Sri Lankan history, these whiz kids use their book smarts and a healthy dose of girl power to fight the ultimate villain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Married collaborators Seneviratne and Sutherland (The Invocations) make their middle grade debut in this immersive sci-fi fantasy series launch. Upon time-traveling from contemporary London to ancient Egypt, genius Sri Lankan 12-year-old twins Pearl and Patrick accidentally kill the mosquito destined to infect King Tutankhamen with malaria, thus derailing history. Luckily, the Interdimensional Misconduct Enquiry—a secret organization tasked with maintaining the timeline—corrects the blunder and recruits the siblings as agents-in-training. After failing to meet expectations, however, the duo is permanently banned from time-traveling. But the youths are later approached by Jack, the young CEO of a shadowy tech startup, who enlists them to "fix history" and create a utopia to Jack's specifications. Though the twins are excited by the prospect, they soon learn that one person's idea of utopia can be another's nightmare. Via alternating POVs, Seneviratne and Sutherland reference real historical figures and events to ground intricate, fantastical worldbuilding, and deploy strong characterization chops to develop fully fleshed-out protagonists. The siblings are complex and undeniably charming tweens, whose journeys toward accepting accountability for their mistakes and impulsive decisions, and learning about their responsibilities as world citizens makes for a vivacious time-hopping extravaganza. Ages 10–up.
