From School Library Journal
Grade 5-8–Jules and Gens time-travel adventures continue in this second installment in the trilogy. In case you didnt know, a JumpMan is a gizmo that will be released in the 15th billennium. It enables users to visit selected pivotal moments in history and, while the kids of the future love it for its ability to dial up time-twisting trips, two present-day teens arent so sure they dig it. Thats been the case since Genevieve was first surprised in her bedroom by the materialization of Theo, a cool, celebrity time-jumping kid from the future. Since then, she and Jules have been madly moving back and forth through time with him in an evolving plot to save the world, and all this slicing and dicing of the time-space continuum has totally interrupted their budding romance. In this episode, which better readers should be able to jump right into without having read the former, Franklin, the eccentric inventor of the technology behind the JumpMan, is convinced that his codeveloper, Quincy, is bent on using the device to tamper with history and further his own selfish interests. Thats a no-no that violates JumpMan rule #1: Dont touch anything! The action in this lighthearted sci-fi adventure includes the reintroduction of pizza to the people of the future and a frantic race against and around the clock as Gen gets stranded in Pompeii just as Vesuvius is about to blow its top. An inventive temporal romp that will leave readers waiting for the conclusion.–Jeffrey Hastings, Highlander Way Middle School, Howell, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gr. 5-8. In a highly successful sequel to Rule #1: Don't Touch Anything (2004), in the JumpMan series, contemporary Australian 13-year-olds Gen and Jules become involved once again with Theo, a boy from the future who uses a toy called the JumpMan to travel to specific sites throughout human history, including ones in the present. In this book, Franklin, a guy from the future who Gen doesn't trust, befriends Jules, who is smitten by Gen but unable to do anything about it. In the meantime, Gen puts her stock in Quincy, who has helped make Theo a celebrity. The action reaches a fever pitch after Gen is hurled back to Pompeii a few days before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. In addition to gadgetry, humor (there's a wonderful riff on our current preoccupation with communication devices) and adventure, the story broaches some knotty philosophical issues that readers may want to discuss: Is it right, for example, to rescue a girl indicted for witchcraft from certain death if there's a chance her disappearance will prove her guilt in the eyes of her accusers? Francisca Goldsmith
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
