My copy of the The Time-Thief was gifted to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
I thoughtThe Inifinite by Patience Agbabi last year was great, so I was thrilled to be invited to join the blog tour for its sequel, The Time-Thief! It was lovely to be back in the company of Elle and her friends and I loved that this time we got to go back to the past.
It’s midsummer’s day and thirteen-year-old Elle and her Leapling classmates are visiting the Museum of the Past, the Present and the Future. But on the day of the school trip, disaster strikes, and the most unique and valuable piece in the museum, the Infinity-Glass, is stolen! And worse still, Elle’s friend and fellow Infinite, MC², is arrested for the crime!
To prove his innocence Elle must leap back centuries in time, to a London very different from today. Along the way she will meet new friends, face dangers unlike any she has ever known, and face an old enemy who is determined to destroy her. Can Elle find the missing Infinity-Glass and return it to its rightful home before it’s too late?
It is such a pleasure to see a book with a Black, autistic main character. It feels like this is something really unusual in children’s books (although I acknowledge that it might just be I haven’t come across them), and I imagine there are a lot of kids out there who will be seeing themselves in a book for the first time. That’s such a big deal! I am in no way an own voices reviewer for this book, and so I have very little idea as to whether it’s an accurate depiction of autism, but it seems to be, and Agbabi also credits a sensitivity reader in the acknowledgements. I’d definitely be interesting in hearing what you think if you do have this knowledge!
I really enjoyed the story in The Time-Thief. Elle and her friends are Leaplings – all born on the 29th February in a leap year – which gives them the power to time travel. After the events of the first book, Elle and Ben are now Infinites, a secret group of Leaplings who fight crimes along the timeline. When the Infinity-Glass goes missing and their friend is arrested for stealing it, it’s up to Elle to prove his innocence. To do this, Elle must leap back to 1752, and I loved these parts of the story. Agbabi paints a vivid picture of 18th century London, and how it affects the Leaplings, both mentally and physically. Francis was also a great addition to the team we already know and love, and I liked the way Agbabi used his story to explore historical London and its prejudices.
One of the things I really like is the importance of wordplay to the characters and how this is threaded throughout the book. The fact that the bad guys are known as the Vicious Circle and all that implies about the difficulties of time travel really tickles me. The only thing that bugs me a little is that I’m not really clear on what’s motivating them. Is it just all about profit? An attack on the mysterious Infinity? The first book had a brilliant environmental message, where the future was green and the antagonists were trying to reverse that, but it wasn’t as clear in The Time-Thief, which focused on the theft of the Infinity-Glass. It’s a minor gripe, as although there is a through storyline, each book is complete in itself, but it is something I’d like to see more of in future books.
Overall, The Time-Thief is a great middle-grade book, with a diverse cast and interesting plot. The environmental message of The Infinite isn’t quite as clear here, but it’s still there, alongside themes of family and friendship, and how they can make it more difficult to do the right thing. However, it’s never preachy and I would definitely recommend it.
4/5
The Time-Thief is out now from Canongate Books. Thank you Canongate for my gifted copy!
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