Browsing the beginning chapter books: Time Jumpers: Stealing the Sword by Wendy Mass, illustrated by Oriol Vidal

Genre: Fantasy/Historical fiction

Protagonists: White; Male/Female

Reading Level: Level O (lexile 570-640)

Series: Currently stopped at four books

Originally reviewed in August, 2019

Wendy Mass' contribution to Scholastic's Branches series launched in 2018 and there are currently four titles in this time-traveling series.

Siblings Chase and Ava (white) are selling their parents' junk sculptures at the flea market and, after their work is done, get some money to fund their own purchases. They find an old suitcase and at first the woman at the booth refuses to sell it - then she pushes it on them when Chase tells her how interested he is in history and science. Inside the suitcase are a number of strange artifacts. The two are exploring their find when a mysterious stranger starts yelling about his missing suitcase.

Chase and Ava take off on their bikes, but when they stop in the park, a weird dragon doorknob flies out of the suitcase and the next thing they know, they've been thrown back in time to the reign of King Arthur! The dragon doorknob is the hilt of Excalibur and only they can keep history from being destroyed. But what does the strange, threatening man have to do with the suitcase? How does it work? Are all the artifacts stolen? Only time will tell!

Black and white sketches show a predominantly white, male cast. The story is written in third person and an odd tense - I'm too far from my literature study days to define it, but here's a sample, "They're both breathing hard when they reach a dead end. Light peeks through the edges of the stones. They wedge their hands into the tiny gaps." While this is the starter book for a series, it feels very disjointed and doesn't really give much information or set-up for the series, other than defining the "magic" object. There isn't much effort put into historical accuracy either.

Verdict: This checks out, due to being part of the popular Branches imprint, but, as Kirkus says, it's really just a "riff on the Magic Treehouse series." An additional purchase only.

Revisited: This seemingly ended in 2019 with four books, but the story was not completely wrapped up, so it could potentially be continued. There are better read-alikes for Magic Tree House, including Secret Explorers (which is a little more challenging in reading level and length), so this remains an additional purchase. It's still available in paperback and circulates enough for me that I'd replace it if lost, but I wouldn't purchase it outright.

ISBN: 9781338217360; Published 2018 by Scholastic; Purchased for the library