The Time Hunters

Carl Ashmore's The Time Hunters is a big, bouncy time-travel adventure for 10 year olds about a summer at a mansion where nothing is quite what it seems.

What happens

Becky Mellor is thirteen and determined to hate every minute of it. Her mum has to work, so Becky and her little brother Joe are packed off for six weeks to an Uncle Percy they don't remember. As far as Becky's concerned, he's a batty old inventor and this will be the dullest summer of her life.

Then a budgie attacks her in the front garden. (Joe saves the day with a garden gnome.)

Uncle Percy turns out to be nothing like she pictured. He wears Bermuda shorts with a violet waistcoat. He drives a very old Rolls Royce that leaves a souped-up convertible standing at the lights. And the horses at Bowen Hall are no taller than her knees.

Then one stormy night Joe drags her outside, and there on the lawn is a real, live Sabre-tooth tiger having a bad tooth pulled! Who wouldn't want to spend a summer there?

This is a story that's very happy to pile on the wonders. There's a housekeeper called Maria who bosses everyone about (Uncle Percy included). There's a groundsman called Will who lives in a tree house and never misses with his bow. And there's a lab that's strictly out of bounds.

Becky and Joe bicker the whole way through, with cornflakes flicked across the breakfast table and plenty of name-calling. But when it matters they've got each other's backs, and that's really lovely to read.

It's worth knowing about the very first chapter before you hand it over. It opens in snowy London in 1900, where a man is chased into an alley and shot in the back. He makes it to Bowen Hall and dies on the doorstep, with a trail of blood behind him. Becky and Joe have also been without their dad since a boat accident six years ago. And Joe calls one of Robin Hood's men a "pansy", an old insult aimed at gay men.

If your reader's a worrier, that first chapter might be a lot. If they like a proper mystery with a villain in the shadows, it's a brilliant hook.

What to read next

If they love the idea of a summer away with a relative who's hiding something huge, try Calista Chase Time Sleuth: Blackbeard's Treasure next. Calista is staying by the sea with her purple-haired Grandma Martha while her mum works abroad, and Grandma has a big secret of her own.