The Time Pirate: A Nick McIver Time Adventure (Nick McIver Time Adventures) [Hardcover]

Ted Bell (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Nick McIver Time Adventures

A thrilling sequel to the instant New York Times bestseller Nick of Time, in which the young time traveler Nick McIver must prove his courage once more, on two fronts: in World War Two–era England, where Nazis have invaded his homeland, and in America during the Revolution, where Nick stands shoulder to shoulder with General George Washington

It’s 1940 and the Nazis are invading Nick’s beloved home, the British Channel Islands. So Nick takes to the skies: He has discovered an old World War One fighter plane in an abandoned barn. Determined to learn to fly, he is soon risking life and limb to photograph armed German minelayers and patrol boats, and executing incredibly perilous bombing raids over Nazi airfields by night.

Meanwhile, the evil pirate, Captain Billy Blood, still desperate to acquire Nick’s time machine, returns to Greybeard Island. He kidnaps Nick’s sister, Kate, and transports her back to Port Royal, Jamaica, in the year 1781, leaving Nick a message that if he wants to see her alive again, he must come to Jamaica and make an even swap: Kate’s life in exchange for Nick’s wondrous time machine—that’s Blood’s bargain.

Having traveled back in time, Nick discovers a plot that might change the outcome of the American Revolution. Disguised as an eighteenth-century cabin boy, he travels to the Caribbean and confronts his old enemy, who has assembled the world’s largest pirate armada.

From the battlefields of the New World to the brutal German occupation of English soil in World War Two, The Time Pirate has Nick McIver fighting once again to defend his country, the outcome of two wars resting on his young shoulders.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5–8—This installment in the series finds 12-year-old Nick once again saving the world on several fronts. It's 1939, and he must defend his home, a small British island, against the looming Nazi invasion. But the Nazis are not his only enemies; using a time-travel device invented by da Vinci, he also battles 18th-century pirates who've kidnapped his sister. In a further wrinkle, the pirates, who are equipped with a time-travel device of their own, threaten to change the outcome of the American Revolution. Nick feels compelled to help General Washington and his troops, even though doing so makes him a traitor, because he knows that the support of the United States will become crucial to the Allies in World War II. Swashbuckling action sequences and scenes of derring-do abound. However, hackneyed language detracts from the action, and clichéd stereotypes of Native Americans and African-American slaves make this title seem out of place in contemporary children's literature.—Hayden Bass, Seattle Public Library, WA
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Bell continues the heavily promoted Nick McIver Adventures through Time series with this sequel to Nick of Time (2008), that begins in 1940. As the Channel Islands brace for the coming German invasion, 12-year-old Nick’s sister is kidnapped by a time-traveling pirate, and Nick’s pursuit turns the plot back to colonial America, where the Revolutionary War is brewing. Readers will need to check their plausibility meter from the start of this rip-roaring time-warp tale. An unnecessary prologue, confusing dream scenes, and excessive nautical details may deter some, but the breakneck pacing and wild plot will keep readers hanging on to the end. Grades 5-8. --Lynn Rutan

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (April 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312578105
• ISBN-13: 978-0312578107
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #473,646 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My life has entered a brand new and exciting chapter. In addition to publishing a new thriller, PHANTOM, next March, I have been elected a Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University, UK. I hold this position at the University's Department of Politics and International Studies. We are a primary resource for the Intelligence Community as well as high level government connections. I was also honored to be named Writer In Residence at Sydney Sussex College here at Cambridge. My college was founded in 1596. I am working on a new novel, the 7th in the Alex Hawke series of spy thrillers. The new thriller will be rooted in Cambridge espionage traditions (the university is over 800 years old) and deal with the looming threat of China's ascent to world dominance. I also plan to write a 3rd installment in my series of historical novels for young people, the Nick McIver Time Adventures published by St. Martins. My Alexander Hawke novels are published by Harper/Collins. Life here at Cambridge is extraordinary, as well it should be as it was recently voted the #1 university in the world. There is certainly no lack of intellectual stimulation and even the most casual conversations with fellow scholars are a wonder to me. As are the amazing architecture and ancient customs. I often feel I'm living in a Harry Potter movie.

PHANTOM, will be published on March 20th, 2012. It is about the next revolution in warfare, cyber war, and the impact that artificial intelligence is having, not only on the military, but on all aspects of human life. I believe the book breaks new ground in the thriller category and hope my fans and new readers have half as much fun reading it as I did writing it!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Time travel for kids!, April 22, 2010

By 

Mom of 3 Book Lovers (Fort Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Time Pirate: A Nick McIver Time Adventure (Nick McIver Time Adventures) (Hardcover)

How exciting could life possibly be with no cell phones, computers or video games? Very! While I wasn't head-over-heels crazy about the first book of this series, Nick of Time, Book 2 is a different story (pun intended). Less nautical jargon, same vintage feel and a much better story!

Other than the prologue (which, to me, does nothing except make the book fourteen pages longer), everything about The Time Pirate is fun. The main characters we met in Book 1 are all here again, but Nick is much more front and center than before. In this adventure he travels to 1781 and meets such legendary characters as George and Martha Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. Bad guy Billy Blood has used his own Tempus Machina to threaten the very existence of the United States of America, and in order to save his own dear England from the Nazis in 1940 Nick must fight against her in the decisive battle of the Revolutionary War.

This might be a fun book for middle school teachers to use during a unit on Revolution as much of the story takes place before and during the Battle of Yorktown. There is some battle-related violence, but no bad language...a great book for kids and the rest of us who love to dream about time travel!

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars lighthearted fun teenage pulp fiction, April 17, 2010

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Time Pirate: A Nick McIver Time Adventure (Nick McIver Time Adventures) (Hardcover)

In 1940 the Nazis invade the British Channel Islands. To repel the enemy, teenager Nick McIver teaches himself to fly an obsolete WWI fighter plane that he had found in an abandoned barn. From the air, barnstorming Nick photographs minelayers and patrol boats during the day and conducts bombing raids over Nazi airfields at night.

Meanwhile his enemy pirate Captain Billy Blood wants possession of Nick's time machine. Using his own, he travels to Greybeard Island where he kidnaps Nick's sister Kate, and takes her back to 1781 Port Royal, Jamaica; but he leaves Nick a message that in exchange for his sibling he wants the time machine. Traveling to the late eighteenth century, Nick of Time learns of a plot that could result in Washington's defeat as Blood has amassed an invincible armada.

Fighting in two wars over a century and half apart, heroic Nick hopes to be on time to save his sister and for his side to win twice. Incredibly fast-paced with over the top happenstances, this lighthearted fun teenage pulp fiction is very entertaining though not deep in either era except when blood and tomatoes mix as Nick battles The Time Pirate.

Harriet Klausner

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rollercoaster Ride Through Time, April 22, 2010

By 

Jeannie Mancini "vernefan" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Time Pirate: A Nick McIver Time Adventure (Nick McIver Time Adventures) (Hardcover)

Time Pirate, Ted Bell's new Young Adult novel and sequel to Nick of Time, comes back full steam ahead with a rip-roaring action packed adventure story for boys and men of all ages! 464 pages of non-stop thrills and chills that will have you on the edge of your seat from page one to the end.

Time Pirate picks up right where Bell left us at the end of Nick of Time, on the island of Greybeard in the British Channel Islands, with 12 year old Nick McIver getting ready for the inevitable coming war. The year is 1940 and as we start out this installment, the Nazis are slowly approaching and inching their way to invading the islands. Nick McIver's friend Winston Churchill is doing his best to forestall the onslaught, but the powers that be have British troops retreating leaving the islands demilitarized and abandoned to fight for their lives on their own.

This story is pretty complex and involves many paralleled events that put Nick McIver and his friends Gunner, Lord Hawke, Commander Hobbes and his adorable little sister Katie, in quite the tailspin as they once again risk their lives for home and country. One day Nick uncovers his father's old WWI fighter plane, a dilapidated old Sopwith Camel. With the help of Gunner, the islands Inn owner, they rebuild and rejuvenate the old plane to it's original glory. After Nick presents his father with his old war prize, Angus McIver teaches his son to fly it himself just in time to do some real live spying and reconnaissance work for Churchill as his daily flights take secret mission photographs of the enemy. Death defying barnstorming scenes with Nick in the air shooting at Nazi's, and German parachuters sailing onto home grounds, have Gunner and Nick realizing it's time to fight. Together with the help of weapons specialist Hobbes, they create apple size bombs that allow our young hero to teach the enemy a few lessons.

But that's not all that's in store for Nick McIver. His old arch enemy, the evil pirate of the Caribbean, Billy Blood, is out for revenge after Nick sliced of his hand and comes to kidnap his sister and bring her back to 1781. Billy Blood wants the second time travel orb that Nick has in possession and uses Katie as bait to get Nick to travel back to the high seas to get his sister back in trade for Leonardo Da Vinci's time machine. And while we the readers witness more high seas battles of wit with cannons firing and pirates dueling, Nick uncovers Billy's secret mission to band together 100 pirate ships that will attack and overtake an armada in the Americas. His plan involves another historical event that involves George Washington, and General Lafayette amidst the American Revolutionary War at Yorktown Virginia, the crucial battle that ends the winning war for America that sent the Redcoats packing! Masquerading as a British drummer Boy, Nick goes undercover surviving in the wilderness alone, killing indians and becomes a double spy for both England and America, helping George Washington win the war.

This is a superb action novel that never lets up. It is finely written with wonderful characters both good and bad, and reflects detailed historical research on the author's part that surely adds to the success of this series. When it comes to action and a hero destined for the classics, you can't beat Nick McIver and his Time Travel adventures. Time Pirate has you hearing the clang of Pirate swords, cannon fire exploding upon tall ships of the high seas, the sound of blunderbusses and flintlocks, cavalry horses stampeding, and droning airplanes complete with bombs and bullets flying as Nick McIver once again saves the day. Fabulous, absolutely positively fabulous!