If you think THE GREAT TIME LOCK DISASTER is a strange
title, the previous book was
called Alligators Overhead. Clearly young adults who enjoy
fun and weirdness will get along with this tale. THE GREAT
TIME LOCK DISASTER is set in swampy Hadleyville where the
alligators kind of talk. Or so we're told. The town
includes plenty of witches, and a young trainee wizard,
Pete Riley. Let's go see what they're getting up to.
Reading from those old books of spells is always tricky,
and Pete gets yet another spell muddled. Could happen to
anyone, right? Maybe not everyone would have created an
accidental time lock in the lady witch's kitchen. After a
week of worry Pete and his pal Weasel try to fix the spell
but get sucked through time to Victorian England. Actually
it's 1837 and Vicky is just about to be crowned. The boys
decide to trace the one wizard whose name they know, in
the
hope that he can send them home. But their mother was
right
when she told them not to go with strangers, because they
end up locked in a dingy poorhouse where boys are fed only
porridge and hired out to do work like climbing into
chimneys to sweep them. Is there any way out for Pete and
Weasel?
I enjoyed poor Pete's despairing thought that he might
never see TV again, and other little touches which remind
us that the past was a dreadful place to live. While Pete
can't work any real magic, he does manage to contact his
alligator friend Fanon. Fat lot of use that would be, he
thinks, since Fanon is stuck in Regent's Park Zoo... Lots
of humour is found in this dire situation and young
readers
will enjoy finding out how working people used to live.
I found some aspects of the story
a little confusing, but I didn't read the first book, and
magic is confusing to us muggles anyway. No doubt if
you've
read the first in the Pete Riley series you'll be
totally
familiar with everyone and everything. THE GREAT TIME LOCK
DISASTER is just scary enough to put you off messing with
other people's spell books - but wouldn't it be fun too?
There's nothing’s more dangerous than a wizard-in-
training. And Pete Riley, has just proven it. He's worked
a bad time spell--a very bad time spell.
No YouTube, no smoothies, no Manga. Not ever again. Not
unless Pete figures out how to reverse his spell and free
Weasel and him from Victorian England.
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