The Time Museum 1

Matthew Loux is the author and artist of Sidescrollers and the five-volume Salt Water Taffy series published by Oni Press. Sidescrollers was placed on the 2008 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens list, and in 2009 Salt Water Taffy was placed on the Texas Library Association's prestigious Maverick list. Matthew also illustrated the graphic novel F-Stop and the board book Good Night, Gabbaland based on the Nick Jr. television show Yo Gabba Gabba. He resides in Brooklyn.

Gr 4–6—Delia Bean loves science and history and excels at school, but when summer vacation begins, she's bored. When Uncle Lyndon invites Delia's family to visit him, she discovers that he's a curator at the Earth Time Museum, where the planet's greatest wonders are displayed. The museum is growing, and more and more employees are needed to time travel in search of exhibits. Uncle Lyndon offers Delia a chance to compete for an internship. Going up against young people from all of human history, Delia attempts to prove she's got what it takes to be an intern, all the while realizing that she's a natural born leader. The Bean Team, as she and her fellow travelers come to be known, must work together, but they learn the hard way that not all time travelers can be trusted. The narrative shares some elements with superhero comics: the members of the Bean Team all have interesting origin stories, and there's quite a bit of training and competing, but there's a good balance among action, character development, and theme. The pencil and ink illustrations with digital coloring call to mind television programming aimed at this audience, as does the pacing. The cliff-hanger ending is sure to leave middle graders anxious for the next volume in this new series. VERDICT A fun, fresh offering for the middle grade crowd. Hand it to fans of Jorge Aguirre's "The Chronicles of Claudette" or Ben Hatke's "Zita the Spacegirl."—Samantha Lumetta, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OHAre your patrons itching to revisit days of yore and bygone eras? These recent novels take on historical fiction from varied perspectives, from a narrative set during the 1950s that tackles bias and prejudice to a tale of medieval London that incorporates fantasy and magic.Read the full review: Doan, p. 85; Goodman, p. 88; Holbrook, p. 90; Rose, p. 92.