"A breezy, straightforward approach to time travel featuring unforgettable characters." - Kirkus Reviews
Time Benders and the Machine
For fans of Margaret Peterson Haddix's The Missing and Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, four orphaned siblings discover the ability to travel through time and change history in Time Benders and the Machine.
On a sunny day in 1974, the Fitzgerald siblings learn that their parents have died in a tragic accident. Devastated, the children are sent to boarding school at Choate Rosemary Hall-the same boarding school that their father and John F. Kennedy went to when they were younger, their Aunt tells them.
Athletic, popular, football star Ken is the eldest Fitzgerald, and suddenly burdened with the responsibility of caring for his three younger siblings. Deb, a year younger, prefers books and the library to socializing, drawn to history and archaeology and hoping to find her way in Choate's structured order. Joe is racked with sorrow over his parent's deaths and determined to find a way to either get them back or make them proud. Kim, the youngest, is only ten years old and just trying to make new friends and keep close to her sister and brothers.
When Joe finds an elaborate math problem and solves it, with the help of the reclusive caretaker, Mr. Brewster, the Fitzgerald's discover that they have unlocked the secrets of how to bend time and time travel. Together, they devise a plan to go back in time, change a pivotal moment in US history, and impact their parents' lives in the hopes of stopping the terrible accident that brought them to boarding school. Along the way they face looming spiritual and moral questions, while finding their way toward closeness and a path through their grief.
With shades of C.S. Lewis's Pevensie siblings and the wonder of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, JB Yanni's Time Benders and the Machine is a time traveling adventure full of heart and soul.
About the Author: JB Yanni was born in central Illinois and grew up in Wheaton, IL, a suburb of Chicago. She is the second child of four, with two sisters and one brother. Her father was a high school math teacher, a vice principal and principal at the high school he taught at for more than thirty years. Her mother stayed home with her growing children and then later became a real estate agent. JB has been a voracious reader her whole life. Often being told to put the book down for dinner or to go to sleep. As such, her home is now filled with old and new books acquired from a lifetime of reading, stacked on nearly every available shelf. Her special quote on books, "A good book introduces you to new people, places and things. A great book introduces you to a lifelong friend." You can find out more about JB her website, jbyanni.com.
