Lost in Time

A 13-year-old travels deeper and deeper into the past in this clever if not entirely satisfying tale by the author of The Number Devil. Robert seems ordinary enough, except for his photographic memory and ""something funny about his eyes."" Watching television one evening, he finds himself inexplicably transported to the scene on the screen: Siberia in the 1950s. He is to have six other time adventures, all achieved by ""entering"" pictures of different sorts. Among his destinations: his German hometown in 1930, Norway in 1860 and the Alsace during the Thirty Years War. Robert manages to get by on his own cunning and with the simplest of tools; after all, ""Robert had once been camping somewhere in the mountains, with no TV and no bathroom, so he knew that you could get by somehow if you must."" Little connects one journey to the next, and although rich in historical details, the episodes themselves may sometimes seem random--at least they may to American readers, who will have less familiarity with European history than Enzensberger's original German audience. At one point Robert muses that ""human beings were capable of anything, the worst of evils and the greatest of wonders,"" but this theme is never followed through and no overarching motif rises to give purpose to the episodes. However, Enzensberger's humorously deadpan narrative voice, his taste for witty ironies and Robert's sheer moxie offer a surfeit of pleasures in and of themselves. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)