I am taking a short break from the Caudill list. I repeat. This is not a 2012 Caudill Nominee. It IS the third book in The Missing series. The first book, Found was a 2011 Caudill Nominee and I reviewed it along with the second book, Sent.
This book, series really, already has a following. Boys were not only requesting Sabotaged left and right, but they were physically checking in weekly to see if our copy had arrived. This is the reason I snagged a copy for myself and thought I shouldn’t wait. I am recommending the book to kids in 5th through 8th grade. I am of the opinion that the girls will like it as well, although none have asked for it yet. The main character, Jonah, has a sister, Katherine, who plays a prominent part. And this third book returns a missing female back in time.
I just went back and read my previous two reviews of this series. I have such high hopes. I hate to admit I’m still kind of disappointed. I think it would be really refreshing to read one of these books where the premise is pulled off without a hitch – I mean, they are able to successfully return a missing child back in time with only basic dangers and not an added problem.
You see, it would be and could be dangerous enough returning a thirteen-year-old girl back to the turn of the seventeenth century – especially if she is being returned to the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Our missing child is Virginia Dare. The last we know of her in real history, she was maybe nine days old. No one knows for sure what happened or where the colony disappeared to. They might have been attacked by Native Americans. They might have been absorbed into a tribe of Native Americans. Disease could have killed them. A natural disaster, a hurricane, might have destroyed them. It is all speculation.
But the title of the book is Sabotaged and that is precisely what has happened. Some mystery person has sabotaged Jonah and Katherine’s mission to return missing child, Andrea, back to Roanoke and no one knows who can be trusted. Andrea was tricked into changing the time and location of their destination just enough to create confusion. The adult in charge of the mission, JB, cannot find them and doesn’t know where to look in order to provide support and help. Another person who calls himself, “Second,” is helping them a very little bit.
The reader and Jonah have been given a list of rules for time-travelers. For instance, it is very important to make as little impact as possible on the past for it may have repercussions for the future. Past experience has supplied Jonah and the reader with some basic knowledge as well. For example, a tracer and the person it represents will always draw towards each other to become complete. But this mission will make them question everything they have learned thus far. And Andrea/Virginia is not entirely on board with the mission because her happiness and even her life are at stake.
Can you say cliffhanger? Read – mission incomplete.
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