By William A.E. Ford
Illustrated by: Marcelo Simonetti
Published on: January 16, 2019

Time travel is never more fun than in Timothy Mean and the Time Machine.

Description:

With Timothy Mean’s amazing imagination and time machine, anything and anywhere is possible!

Join Timothy on a magical rhyming adventure as he skips through time and pranks with pirates, gets daring with dragons, and even teases a T-Rex!

“It’s Monday. Hip hip hooray! Where shall we travel in time today?

With Timothy Mean, every day is a rhyme in time!

Thoughts:

A rhyming story about a boy who is bored and decides to make something special out of cardboard boxes, a broom, sticky glue and a few other fun items. After it was all said and done Timothy Mean had built the most amazing time machine. Each day he goes somewhere new – in the past or in the future. From viking ships, to prehistoric times where he escapes a dinosaur’s clutches just in time (thank goodness for that big red GO button) to getting a chance to ride on the back of a dragon during medieval times.

The story itself offers a lot of imaginative adventure that shows a youngster what is possible in an impossible world. But, the story also provides a couple of scenes with specific historical people or events that an adult can use as teaching moments, such as when Timothy joins the moon landing with Neil Armstrong.

One of the fantastic parts of this book are the pictures. Each set of pages has a full-length picture that provides a feast for the eyes and helps bring that time-travel moment to life. My personal favorite is the scene where Timothy goes to the future for the first time and is in awe of cars that can fly. Something about it reminds me of a mash up between The Fifth Element movie and a specific Dr. Who episode from years past. I also enjoyed the medieval times scene with the flying dragon. The flame is so fierce and the red, orange, and yellow that make up the flame really stand out.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. The book has white text and then other times black text, depending on the picture background. I didn’t have any issues with the white text, but I did find some of the black text words to be difficult to read on a couple of pages, but not everywhere.

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to the author for the reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.