JUMPMAN: RULE #1: DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING

This launch of a new series, a bestseller in the author's native Australia, offers a contemporary take and a humorous twist on time travel. Jules Santorini, "aged thirteen and a bit," is about to ask his lifelong friend Gen out on a date, if his nerves will allow him. His plans are thwarted, however, when a boy with "light chocolatey skin" and Technicolor hair suddenly materializes between them in Gen's room. This is Theodore, and he is a "Jumper" from the 52nd century, a time when a handheld device called the TimeMaster JumpMan provides its users with an opportunity for leisure travel to moments of great historical import. But while most Jumpers land a safe distance from the action, unable to interfere with history, Theodore has somehow become "present." It turns out that the new JumpMan he won in a contest is a not-quite-ready prototype that was slipped to him by mistake—or was it? Valentine has great fun with the vagaries and implied complexities of time travel ("So you went into the future to rewind the past to catch up with the present we would have had if we hadn't had had that future?"), explains that Bill Gates and Leonardo Da Vinci are renegades from the future, and makes good use of Theodore's perspective to editorialize on modern habits (his talking coat continually warns him about the low nutritional value of the food he eats). The author nimbly balances the science-fiction story with the smaller, but just as compelling tale of Jules and his quest for confidence, making this a great read, not just for sci-fi buffs. Ages 8-12. (June)