Talking Across Space and Time

Through some type of eerie, time-jumping technical cross-up, it appears a Victorian street urchin from Renee Duke's novel The Mud Rose, has come in contact with 1930s era boy named Eddie, who relates his real-life exploits in Marva Dasef’s Tales Of A Texas Boy. Neither Hetty nor Eddie seemed aware that anything too strange had occurred, but Renee and Marva thought it was worth recording. 

* * *

Eddie Perkins, age twelve, Hereford, Texas, 1933.

I wanted ta talk with Uncle Harley ‛bout comin’ ta visit in the Spring. Since we didn’t have a telephone out at the farm, I had to use the phone here at the mercantile. I asked Mr. Brown, and he said it was okay longs I ask the oper...the lady what answers how much it costs. I picked up the earpiece, spun the hand crank to ring up, and talked into the horn. I said I wanted Mr. Harley Granger in Linden. She says fine, and I wait awhile. Pretty soon, I hear a some scratchy sounds and I yell, “Hello, hello. Is anybody there?”

Hetty Styles, age ten, London, England, 1888.

I was in the front hall when that telephone thing went off. It’s some new-fangled contraption what Mrs. Granger says Paige, Dane, and Jack’s Uncle Clive had put it a month or two back. I let it ring a few times thinking she’d come to answer it, but she didn’t, so I figured I’d better. I picked it up a bit ginger-like, and said, “Uh, um, London 2-1-6.” Think that’s what Mrs. Granger says. I’d never talked into one of them things before, so I figured they’d have to excuse me if that weren’t right. “Who’s calling, please?” That’s the other thing what she says.

Eddie:

This is Eddie. I’m tryin’ to talk to my Uncle Harley Granger in Linden, Texas, but I don’t think I’m talking to who I want. You don’t sound like a Texas gal. Do you know my Uncle Harley? He don’t have any young girls and you don’t sound like you’re any older than my sister. If you don’t mind, would you tell me yer name?

Hetty:

Hi-ya, Eddie. I’m Hetty, and I’m coming on for ten. I’m in London, England. And there in’t no Mr. Granger here, just a Mrs. You say you’re in Texas? That’s in the United States of America, innit? Hard to believe I can be talking to someone that far off. But then, lots of things has been happening lately that’s kinda hard to believe. Until recent, me and our Pip – that’s me brother, he’s six – was dossing down in a shed of a night, and going hungry more often than not, but now we’s staying at a toff’s house with lotsa grub, and feather beds, and everything.

Eddie:

Well, I was tryin’ to reach Linden, not London, but it’s okay if this is a Granger’s place. I don’t know any Toff’s, though I think it’s nice you got a feather bed. If ya can tell me who you are, maybe I can figger out how I got to talkin’ to ya.

Hetty:

Not Toff like in a name. Toff’s just a fancy word for rich people. Me and Pip’s staying here ’til we goes to Canada. The Barnardo folks is arranging for that. My Canadian mates say it’s freezing cold in Canada in winter, and blistering hot in summer. It like that where you live?

Eddie:

Well, Canada is pretty far away from our Texas farm, so it’s maybe not as hot. It surely is hot here in the summer. We can get frost and occasional snow though. I recall a midnight ride crossin' the prairie in moonlight when the frost was on the ground. I thought it a mite perty, even if boys aren't supposed to think about such things. Worst part was findin' our neighbor lady dead in her kitchen.

Hetty:

Pip and me’s seen a few dead folk lying in the street. You kinda gets used to it. It’s how things is in a big city like London. Not likely to be in a city once we gets to Canada though. We’s probably gonna be on a farm or summut. You like living on a farm?

Eddie:

Oh, yeah! A farm is a great place to live. You shouldn't fear that at all. Mosta my good times have to do with the farm animals. We got horses, naturally, and pigs, chickens, a coupla milk cows. Our big money comes from our jackass, Beau. He's a frisky fella and all the folks round here like to use him for a stud. Mules are very important to farmin'.

Hetty:

Our Pip’s mad for horses, so if we gets on a farm what’s got them, he’ll be over the moon. I knows about chickens, and pigs, and cows, even though I’ve not had much to do with ’em. Dunno that I’ve ever seen a mule. What’s a mule? You said jackass, too, like they was the same. Is they?

Eddie:

Well, a jackass is a like a male donkey, but lots bigger, and they breed with mares, that’s female horses. When the foal is born, it ain’t a horse nor a jackass, but a crossbreed what’s called a mule. We’re pretty busy what with all the animals to tend.

Hetty:

How’s about school? I didn’t take to it right off, but I can see where it has its advantages. We learns about reading and writing, and doing sums, and all the countries in the Empire. Them the kind of things you learns about too?

Eddie:

School's okay. We gotta ride the horses to school every day. We learn all the stuff you do, I 'spect. Readin', writing', and 'rithmatic. I would like to know about that Empire thing. We live in what's called a deemocracy.

Hetty:

Your school must be quite a ways off if you has to ride horses. We walks to ours. An empire’s all the countries what belongs to England, and has the queen on their dosh. Canada belongs to the Empire, but I don’t think America does. Our queen’s Victoria. Who’s yours?

Eddie:

We don't have no queens and kings. We got a President. Right now, that’s Mr. Franklin Roosevelt. He's kind of like royalty. His cousin, Teddy, was President, too, but we elect presidents every four years. Things are hard right now. Pa says the ee-com-onee got busted. Then the Dustbowl happened. Made a lot of people have to leave their farms to find work elsewhere. Some came down our way from Oklahoma. Pa hired some of 'em on, even though things are tough all over.

Hetty:

Guess your president’s kind of like our prime minister. They changes at elections, too. Can’t say as I knows too much about ’em. Don’t think they comes down the East End. The queen don’t, neither, but she do go out and about a bit now more’n she used to. Lots of people saw her during her Jubilee procession. You ever seen your president?

Eddie:

I ain't had the privilege of meeting President Roosevelt, but I would surely like to and shake his hand. Pa says he's doing good things to get the country back on its feet.
Hetty:

England’s supposed to be doing real well at the moment, since we’ve got the Empire and all, though I don’t knows too many people what’s flush. It’s pretty hard graft for most of us. Up ’til we had the Barnardo folk looking after us, me and Pip had to go out larking.

Eddie:

What’s larking?

Hetty:

Mudlarking. Picking stuff out of the mud down by the river and selling it on.

Eddie:

I don't quite understand that. We got mudflats around here, but there ain't usually much in those dried up arroyos worth havin'. Sometimes I can find a dried up frog, but that's about all. What kind of stuff do you find?
Hetty:

Coal, nails, rope, old dishes, buttons, and the like, anything what a rag and bottle shop might buy. Wouldn’t have no use for frogs, though Nolly once told me that French people eats ’em, but no one round here do.

Eddie:

My Pa told me about the French folks eatin' frogs and even snails! He was in France durin' the Great War.

Hetty:

What war was that?

Eddie:

Supposed to be the war to end all wars. I know Americans, French folk, and Germans were fightin’, but I’m not sure who else.

Hetty:

England’s been in a lot of wars. Last one I remembers hearing about was some place called the Transvaal. Don’t make sense, do it, people going all over the place just to kill each other. Not that they don’t do that right here, too. You heard about that nutter, Jack the Ripper, doing in poor working girls?

Eddie:

Yeah, I heard about that Jack the Ripper feller. Right gives me shivers thinkin' about it. Did they ever figure out who he was?

Hetty:

Not yet. Me and Pip think we might have seen him. Can’t get anyone to believe us, though. ’Cept our mates, of course. And him. Think he believes us all right. One of the reasons we’s going to Canada is to get away from him. Long ways from home though, so we doesn’t quite know what to expect. Your Texas sounds a bit similar, so talking to you’s been a help in that regard. Anything else go on round your way that we might find of interest?

Eddie:

Well, ain't nothin’ too exciting, lessen you think a tame bear, a pig which can fly, a chicken what won't stay out of the kitchen, or finding mammoth bones on the prairie are interestin'. Me, my best time was when I got to go on a real cattle drive.

Hetty:

Our Pip’d probably like that too, if he got to ride a horse. The rest sounds pretty good and all. Better’n what we was doing here, anyway.

Eddie:

Yer brother’d be right at home here. We always ride our horses everywhere. I could let him ride Sam if’n he wanted.

Considerin' the hard life you lived, seems like you wouldn't have much fun, but there musta been sumthing excitin'. What's the most fun things you got to do in London?

Hetty:

Oh, we has our good times, like the queen’s jubilee, and the Lord Mayor’s procession, though that were better last year than this. An even on ordinary days, there’s organ grinders with monkeys what does tricks, and Punch & Judy shows and such. Day or two ago we even went to the zoo and saw all manner of funny-looking beasties. Actually, I think we’s just about to go off somewheres again, ’cos I hears Mrs. Granger calling, S’pose I’d best get off this thing. Nice talking to you.

Eddie:

Nice talkin’ with you too, Hetty. When ya’ll get to Canada, maybe you and Pip can come on down ta visit sometime.

* * *

The Mud Rose by Renee Duke

This is the second book in Renee Duke's Rose series about time-traveling kids making right the wrongs of the past. The first in the series involved the two princes in the Tower of London. They mystery is whether they were murdered by Richard III or did something else happen? "The Disappearing Rose" provides a provocative answer.

The 2nd book, "Mud Rose," takes us back to Victorian England. The time-traveling trio of Paige, Dane, and Jack home in with their magical amulet to a sister and brother who mine the mud flats of the Thames for items they can sell. The kids, Hetty and Pip, have no parents or home. They have to make do as so many kids had to in the time period. 

Ebook, audio, and regular print paperback: Tales of a Texas Boy.

Large Print Paperback

How do you handle a crazy jackass? Eddie knows. If you ask Eddie, he'll tell you pigs can fly and show you where to find real mammoth bones. Take his word for it when he tells you always to bet on the bear. These are things he learned while dreaming of becoming a cowboy in West Texas during the Depression. Through Eddie, the hero of "Tales of a Texas Boy," we find that growing up is less about maturity and more about roping your dreams. Hold on tight. It's a bumpy ride.

Missing, Assumed Dead Book Trailer

Missing, Assumed Dead
Prejudice, murder, insanity, suicide: Every small town has its secrets.

When Kameron McBride receives notice she’s the last living relative of a missing man she’s never even heard of, the last thing she wants to do is head to some half-baked Oregon town to settle his affairs. But since she’s the only one available, she grudgingly agrees.

En route, she runs afoul of a couple of hillbillies and their pickup in an accident that doesn’t seem...accidental. Especially when they keep showing up wherever she goes. Lucky for her, gorgeous Deputy Mitch Caldwell lends her a hand, among other things. Her suspicions increase when the probate Judge tries a little too hard to buy the dead man’s worthless property.

Working on a hunch and trying to avoid the Judge’s henchmen, Kam probes deeper into the town’s secrets and finds almost no one she can trust. With Mitch’s help, she peels away the layers of prejudice, suicide, murder, and insanity. But someone in town doesn’t like her poking around, and when they show their intentions by shooting her through the police chief’s office window, the stakes are raised. Kam must find out what really happened to her dead relative before someone in this backward little town sends her to join him.

And she thought Oregon was going to be boring.

          

A Return to the Hate of the Past

MISSING, ASSUMED DEAD

Prejudice, murder, insanity, suicide: Every small town has its secrets.
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I posted this a couple of years back, but with the resurgence of the right-wing, neo-Nazi, racist encouraged by the appointed President, I thought it was worth another run.

Recent unfortunate events in Oregon (the self-named "militia" who are essentially domestic terrorists) led me to thinking about the villains of this mystery/thriller. I made the terrorist group in the book white power proselytizers. The out-of-state agitators holing up in a Federal building on Federal land no doubt carry the same prejudices around in their pointy heads. For your consideration, I submit to you the ignorant racist elements of civilized society who say "constitution" as if they had a clue what was in that document. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to introduce a very similar bunch of "bundies."

FEAR AND POWER

I didn't want to let the Judge rant on about his prejudices, so I'm covering for him. This is one mean, nasty old man. But one soft spot in his heart does him in.

In "Missing, Assumed Dead," a self-proclaimed 'judge' runs a small Justice Court (really only traffic court) in a tiny town in Southeast Oregon. He has appointed his nephew, George Leiper, de facto town police chief. Of  course, there is no police department, but George loves to wear the uniform and enjoy the comforts of his own office in the City Hall.

Nobody cares to oppose the Judge as long as he keeps his connection to the White Power groups away from Rosewood.

But that's not always the case. He brings the darkness of the Aryan Brotherhood right to the town's front door when he forces his daughter, Miranda, to marry one of the brotherhood, Cole Bristow. Mostly, the Judge want to get his daughter away from a Basque shepherd, Salvadore. When Salvadore disappears mysteriously, the town populace whispers behind closed doors, but don't dare cross the Judge with his connections to the White Power group.

Soon after bearing her daughter, Mirabel, Miranda commits suicide rather than remain married to Cole. The whole town worries, but fear keeps the secrets hidden.

The judge becomes the guardian of his granddaughter, but keeps her away from the rest of the town. Even her uncle admits that she's not right in the head. Something happened to her around the time Salvadore disappeared. What happened to Salvadore, and why is Mirabel insane? Is the Basque shepherd her father rather than Cole, Miranda's husband?

Here's an excerpt from the book that shows you a little about Judge Leiper and how the terrorist groups get their ideas of right and wrong.

* * *

George hadn’t wanted to drive the judge to the meeting. He couldn’t get all fired up about hating kikes, niggers, and spics like those other men. Sure, he wished anybody who wasn’t white would go back where they come from but didn’t feel like doing anything about it. The men, and some women, wore swastika armbands, and the big picture of Hitler gave George the willies. Just ’cause you wanted America to be a good, all-white Christian nation didn’t mean you had to hate like that bastard. He killed a lot of white boys, too.

The ol’ man climbed up on the platform at the end of the meeting room with Hitler peering over his shoulder. George sat in the back just wishing it were over.

His uncle was in fine form. He hollered and pounded the lecture table like an old-time preacher in a tent revival. George’s mind drifted back to when he was a boy and his pa took him to the traveling meetings. George’s ma, the judge’s sister, died from the cancer when he was a boy. All the prayer vigils didn’t help none. The judge was a rich man and showed an interest in his nephew. When George’s pa died, the judge took him in. He owed the judge a lot, and the judge never let him forget it.

George’s attention returned to the lecture. The judge was talking about the Spanish War, the one where Hitler bombed the Basques. He got them all worked up. Seemed like those fellas didn’t know about it, and it gave them a good excuse to be pissed off at somebody close by. Everybody stood up and clapped up a storm. George rose along with them, so’s nobody would notice him.

After the ending prayer, the judge led a group to the local watering hole to discuss the situation some more. It was only at the tavern that George realized the judge was talking about Salvadore Vasco. He noticed Cole Bristow standing next to the judge. George wondered how the judge felt about his son-in-law when he run out on Mirabel and left the judge to raise her. They acted friendly, though, so George figured they’d mended any broken fences.

Cole walked over to George and threw a heavy arm around his shoulders. “How’s it hangin’, cousin?”

George edged away but forced a grin and shook Cole’s hand. “Hangin’ fine. How ’bout you?”

“Good, good.” Cole leaned forward and tapped the lip of his beer bottle on George’s chest. “Say, George, I didn’t want to ask the judge, but how’s that little girl.”

“Mirabel?”

“Yeah, yeah. I wanted to know if she’s come out dark or light.”

George shook his head, confused by what Cole was getting at. Then a light bulb lit, and he realized Cole wanted to know if Mirabel was his daughter. “She’s fair-skinned, Cole. Looks like her mom.”

Cole chuckled deep in his throat and tapped his beer on George’s chest again. George took a step back and glanced down at the beer spot Cole left behind. “Miranda was a hot number, all right.”

George nodded but thought Cole talking about his dead wife like that was, well, it was disrespectful. Before Cole could tap him again, George made his way to the judge’s side. “Shouldn’t we go home soon? It’s a long drive.”

“In a minute, George. Find yourself another beer.”

George looked at the group of men standing around the judge, all practically foaming at the mouth talking about going out and ‘taking care’ of Vasco. The judge grinned and clapped them on the back, sayin’ he’d be grateful to whoever helped him out in sendin’ a message to the Basques around Jordan Valley. No good white folks wanted them around, and they’d best move along.

When they drove back to Rosewood, the judge was laughing and happy. “It’s about time something was done about Vasco. Teach the Basques to keep their dirty paws off white women.”

“Yessir.” George agreed some, but not with what the judge was saying. Salvadore and Miranda hadn’t been together for years, so George couldn’t see how it mattered anymore.

GENERATIONS FIVE by Renee Duke

 Now the end is near. We face the final curtain. Wait! Oh, what? No, this blog isn't about Frank Sinatra, but the very excellent wrap-up novel in the TIME ROSE series by Renee Duke.

Find out about all of Renee's books on her website: Time Traveling with Kids and Author Page on Amazon. I wrote my review of the last book in the series, The Volcanic Rose (https://mgddasef.blogspot.com/2020/08/5-in-time-rose-series-volcanic-rose.html ), to include my thoughts on the series as a whole. 

Read my review of Generations Five on this post following the book blurb.

Generations Five 

Available at Amazon

Available at Smashwords

For centuries, the Time Rose medallion has taken the children of a history-loving family into the past to restore the life paths of children whose own histories have been altered.

When all such paths have been set to rights, a final task awaits those destined to be the final seekers, aided by some who served the medallion in the four preceding generations. From Iron Age Britain to World War II Holland, these are their stories.

REVIEW OF GENERATIONS FIVE (*****)

77 A.D. A medallion with a distinctive rose design is forged from the pieces of a statue of an eagle by a sorcerer. His purpose: To send generations of a family line to the past. Each Medallion-holding generation is given the ability to travel back, find the holder of a matching medallion, deduce what the holder needs, and then solve the problem in any way they can. No hints or clues are given. The medallion takes each Generation to a person and place only the diviner of the medallion generation can know.

Centuries pass with the Medallion passed down through the Wolverton family, all children under the age of fifteen, into adventures beyond their imagining.

Finally, though, the medallion and the holder pieces must be brought back together. The first five books in the Time Rose series detail the medallion holders and their travels. A prophesy divined by one of the Wolvertons, Aunt Aurie, before the turn into the 20th Century is finally made clear. From the time she penned the poem, there would be only five generations remaining who will hold and use the Time Rose Medallion.

When generations five remain alive,

Deliverance is near.

And the rose tree will its role fulfil,

If all can persevere.

The book begins with the first of the last generations. In 1921, Sebastian and Etta Wolverton travel back to the time of the English Revolution (Oliver Cromwell ring a bell?). The younger sister, Aurelia, is an unwilling participant and never time travels again. Sebastian and Etta, however, are attuned to the Medallion and have very little trouble adapting to the idea of time traveling and perceive what they are supposed to do.

“Generations Five” is a prequel to the other five books in the series. It answers questions about the entire Wolverton family's involvement with the rose medallion, and provides the historical context of the final five generations to use the Medallion. Sadly, this book completes the story of the time traveling Wolvertons teaching all the kids a lot of history (and we readers, as well) and shows with their intelligence and bravery exactly why the family was chosen to use the medallions magic from 1066 to the final Five generations.

What he comes down to is that this is a great series and you should get it for your own kids, their cousins, and the kid down the block who needs something good to read. It's very worthwhile even for us grown-ups who like rousing tales extending across centuries of history. You know, those history bits we all learned then forgot in school.

Read the entire series. I did and am both pleased and saddened to make this my final review on a wonderful set of stories by Renee Duke.

#5 in the Time Rose Series - The Volcanic Rose

I've got it! Woot! I'm reading the penultimate book in the Time Rose series by Renee Duke. Over the past week, I've posted my reviews of all the books in the series. Here comes GENERATIONS FIVE (after book 5 in the series, but don't let the fives confuse you. There are six books overall in the series. This is the last book (Volcanic Rose) I reviewed. Coming soon: My Fabulous Review of GENERATIONS FIVE.

The Volcanic Rose by Renee Duke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The time-traveling saga of the Wolverton family comes to an explosive end in "The Volcanic Rose." I'm not giving any spoilers you can't get off the cover. Yes, Mt. Vesuvius is involved.

One thing about the Wolvertons, there are plenty of them to get involved in fixing the things that go wrong in the past. Featured over the four previous books, we follow the current generation of time travelers, siblings Paige and Dane, and their cousin, Jack. In the third book (Spirit Rose), they meet Skookaweethp, a syilx (First Nations tribe) girl from centuries before, who knows not only they are time travelers, but that another time traveler, the evil Khatcheres, wants to disrupt time to his own advantage.

The Time Rose travelers learn they are tasked by time itself to thwart Khatcheres' plot, but in doing so, their ability to time travel will end.

The cryptic writings of one of their time traveling ancestors, Aurea-Rose, leads them through the steps they must take, which involves returning their Time Rose and other time artifacts to a girl named Varteni who awaits them in 79 AD at Ercolano, known now as Herculaneum. Varteni and the town lie in the direct path of the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius. To be sure, time is more of the essence than usual.

This is a great setup to end the series with both dramatic flair, but also to make sure we readers of the series will (sadly) know this will be the end of the Time Rose tales.

It is best to read the books in order even if the travelers are hopping around in time themselves. Lots of clues are provided throughout the series which make the conclusion logical and inevitable.

My only complaint is the cast of characters within the Wolverton clan alone is numerous. However, five plus generations of the family are represented, so it's not surprising there are tons of aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, grand-parents, great-grand-parents and even a great-great-great-grand-aunt. It's a bit difficult keeping track of who's who. I'd love to see the Family Tree.

It'd be great if the publisher now puts the entire series together as a boxed set. It'd be a wonderful gift for middle-grade kids who like a rousing fantasy tale.

Highly recommended for kids of all ages. I'm giving this five stars to include the entire series. I'm usually stingier with stars.


View all my reviews

Time Rose Series #4 - The Tangled Rose

As I'm anxiously awaiting (or are already reading) the penultimate book in the Time Rose series by Renee Duke, I'm posting my reviews of all the books in the series. Here comes GENERATIONS FIVE (after book 5 in the series, but don't let the fives confuse you. There are six books overall in the series.

The Tangled Rose by Renee Duke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The time-traveling Rose series is one of my favorites in both time-travel and the YA genres. The series has taken us from the Tower of London, to the mudlarks on the Thames, to thousands of years in Canada's First Nation past. In each trip, the cousins, Paige, Dane, and Jack, travel back to become help history flow properly. Their task is to find the child in the past to which they're sent who possesses a match to the Rose amulet which expedites the time traveling.

The Tangled Rose takes us on a time trip to pre-war and Nazi Germany. This is a tough subject. How do you write for kids when you're setting them down in the midst of one of the most horrific times in history. How can the kids find the person who they are meant to help during those perilous times?

The first person they see who has a keeper piece (one of the Rose time travel devices) is a girl with Down Syndrome. She definitely needs help having slipped and hanging perilously off a cliff. A gypsy boy, Niko, helps them rescue Hani. The cousins figure their task may be complete. They've saved a kid in possession of a keeper piece. However, their own amulet doesn't give them the signal that their mission is over.

They discover the keeper piece doesn't belong to the girl they rescued, but to her older sister, Marta. What's worse, Marta has been taken up with the Nazi cause. She's not a pleasant person. She has been indoctrinated into the Nazi ideal. People like her own sister and the gypsy boy who helped rescue her are undesirables. The Third Reich will soon start to eliminate the non-Aryans.

Can the cousins figure out what they're supposed to do to help Marta? Maybe talk her out of being a Jungmädel (Hitler Youth). The cousins decide they need help from Uncle Trevor. Since he had been a piece keeper in his own youth, he can go along on their own time trip to help them figure it out.

Are the time travelers assigned to save Nani, the "defective," Niko, the gypsy, Marta, the obsessed Nazi, or is it somebody else?

I was totally caught up on the historical period in this book in the series. Renee Duke does an excellent job keeping up with both historical accuracy, the fantasy of the time-traveling children, and drawing the reader along into the next book. The hints are there. The kids will be facing their greatest challenge in the next book in the series. I can hardly wait for it to come out.

Time Rose #3 - The Spirit Rose

The latest and (sob) last book should be out or at least coming soon. It is the grand finale of the Time Rose time travel series for kids and those of us who always like MG/YA books over the nasty old adult scribbles.

Until the book is in my hot Kindle and I've had a chance to review it, I'm going to show my reviews for the first five of the books in the series. I'm just grabbing my reviews from Goodreads. I encourage you to check out the entire series if you're a history buff who's a kid at heart. Here's my review for the first in the series. I'll be putting all the reviews up here until I get to GENERATIONS FIVE!!!!!

The Spirit Rose by Renee Duke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First, Happy 105th Birthday to Grantie Etta!

The Rose series is a delight. Three kids--Paige, Dane, and Jack--are the fifth generation of a special family. What’s so special about them? Each generation's children are given the family heirloom, a Rose Medallion, which allows those possessing it to travel back in time. There's a bit of a catch. They don't get to pick the time period they land in. The Medallion chooses for them. Their job as time travelers is to aid and assist whoever they meet who possess a Rose artifact (there are several)and desperately need help.

Briefly, book 1 of the series, "The Disappearing Rose," takes the kids back to the 15th Century to help a couple of princes who are living in a notorious tower with several people casting designs on the crown the older one has just inherited. Book 2, "The Mud Rose," has the kids helping two orphans in Victorian times escape the attention of a certain serial killer named Jack the Ripper.

In this third book, the kids attempt to take a time jaunt while the three are still all together (Paige and Dane live in Canada), but they get tossed back into their own time. Puzzled, they consult the prior medallion users, who happens to include Grantie Etta and a couple of others in the older Medallion generations.

Grantie Etta is a very orderly hoarder with rooms full of artifacts going back in time several centuries. She recalls a book written by a former medallion user. The elders and the kids try to figure out what Etta's Aunt Rosalina was trying to tell future generations. The story is not a pretty one. An evil sorcerer is after the Medallion along with every other Rose artifact spread across time.

When Paige and Dane's parents start saying things that make no sense (it was sunny in Canada when they left for England, but the parents now claim a flood threatened the area). Other oddities are brought to light. Clearly, the evil sorcerer is finding ways to mess with timelines, making the kids' pasts change. They remember what is supposed to be, but others who are not Medallion users haven't a clue things have changed and not for the better. He’s also not happy about the family’s little time traveling tradition, and intends to put a stop to it.

This is so much fun to read with multiple generations working together to stop a mad man from changing today's world by manipulating the past. There are a lot of characters in this book. I suspect that some of those relatives who've shown up for Grantie Etta's birthday may be involved in the series to come. One family, in particular, has all the makings of future villainy.

Any more and I'd be scooping out spoilers like ice cream, so I'll stop here and just say, read books 1 and 2 of the series or you might get a bit lost in this one. They're all rousing good reads for both children and adults.

Remember, read "The Disappearing Rose," "The Mud Rose," then this book, "The Spirit Rose." You'll be glad you did.

The Time Rose Series - Book 2 Review

The latest and (sob) last book should be out or at least coming soon. It is the grand finale of the Time Rose time travel series for kids and those of us who always like MG/YA books over the nasty old adult scribbles.

Until the book is in my hot Kindle and I've had a chance to review it, I'm going to show my reviews for the first five of the books in the series. I'm just grabbing my reviews from Goodreads. I encourage you to check out the entire series if you're a history buff who's a kid at heart. Here's my review for the first in the series. I'll be putting all the reviews up here until I get to GENERATIONS FIVE!!!!!

The Mud Rose by Renee Duke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book in Renee Duke's Rose series about time-traveling kids making right the wrongs of the past. The first in the series involved the two princes in the Tower of London. They mystery is whether they were murdered by Richard III or did something else happen? "The Disappearing Rose" provides a provocative answer.

The 2nd book, "Mud Rose," takes us back to Victorian England. The time-traveling trio of Paige, Dane, and Jack home in with their magical amulet to a sister and brother who mine the mud flats of the Thames for items they can sell. The kids, Hetty and Pip, have no parents or home. They have to make do as so many kids had to in the time period.

Renee Duke paints us a picture of the poverty of the time period. The present day kids are taken to the 1880s tasked to save Hetty and Pip. But save them from what? Just an impoverished existence or is there more to the story. If you know a bit about history, the name Jack the Ripper should ring a bell. Hetty might have witnessed the Ripper after one of his murders. She and Pip are in danger from the notorious murderer, but they're also in danger of an early death from the horrid conditions in which they must live.

The solution to the problem of Hetty and Pip's survival is the story of the Bernardo school for children, a real institution dedicated to helping the children of the time get an education and find new homes.

Suffice it to say, the team of Paige, Dane, and Jack find a solution and carry through with the rescue.

The Time Rose Series

Read the entire Time Rose series!

Generations Five - The Latest Book in the Series
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For centuries, the Time Rose medallion has taken the children of a history-loving family into the past to restore the life paths of children whose own histories have been altered. When all such paths have been set to rights, a final task awaits those destined to be the final seekers, aided by some who served the medallion in the four preceding generations. From Iron Age Britain to World War II Holland, these are their stories.

The Disappearing Rose 
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 No one knows what happened to the two little Princes of the Tower. That’s what Dane, Paige, and Jack are told when they start working on a medieval documentary for Dane’s filmmaker father. Then an ancient medallion transports them back to the fifteenth century and gives them a chance to discover the truth about the mysterious disappearance of young King Edward the Fifth and his brother Richard, Duke of York. But they’d better be careful. The Princes did disappear, and whoever was responsible for that might just decide that their new friends should disappear as well.

The Mud Rose
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Another journey into the past takes Paige, Dane, and Jack to Victorian London, where they meet two young mudlarks named Hetty and Pip. Even though life is very hard for them, Hetty is leery of seeking help from Dr. Barnardo or other social reformers who might separate her from her little brother. The Time Rose Travellers have an idea for getting around that problem, but they’re about to have another. Jack the Ripper’s grisly attacks on women in the East End has the whole city on edge, and the blood spattered man Hetty and Pip happen across late one night doesn’t want witnesses on the loose.

The Spirit Rose
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The discovery of an old book provides more information on the medallion, but Paige and Dane will soon be returning to Canada and know it will be several months before they can make another time trip with their cousin Jack. Then, amidst all the preparations for Grantie Etta’s one hundred and fifth birthday, strange things begin to happen. As a result, Jack, too, must go to Canada. Once there, it soon becomes apparent that the only way to stop the increasingly distressing alterations to their modern-day lives is to venture far into the Okanagan Valley’s past and locate the syilx girl who has the legendary Arcanus Piece.

The Tangled Rose
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On Paige, Dane, and Jack’s fourth time trip, the medallion connects them with children living in Pre-WW II Germany. One, Hani, has Down Syndrome. Another, Nicko, is a gypsy. The Time Rose Travellers know the Nazi regime will soon begin persecuting such ‘undesirables’, but keeping Hani and Nicko from becoming victims isn’t going to be easy. Plagued by enemies from their own time, and not even sure who they’re supposed to be helping, they’re meeting with resistance from Nicko and open hostility from Hani’s sister, Marts, an ardent member of the Hitler Youth.

The Volcanic Rose 
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The medallion has found the one it seeks. In Italy to attend a family wedding, Paige, Dane, and Jack’s final time trip takes them to a waiting Varteni, who is living in Herculaneum in the path of an already rumbling Mt. Vesuvius. But getting Varteni and her two young charges to safety is the least of their worries. They’re not the only ones to have finally located her. Their nemesis, Khatcheres, has, too, and is preparing to move against her and seize control of Time. To defeat him, the Line of the Restorer must unite and call upon every resource available.

Coming Soon! The Penultimate Time Rose Book by Renee Duke.

The latest and (sob) last book should be out today (August 1st) or at least soon. Publishers, yanno?

Anyway, it is the grand finale of the Time Rose time travel series for kids and those of us who always like MG/YA books over the nasty old adult scribbles.

Until the book is in my hot Kindle and I've had a chance to review it, I'm going to show my reviews for the first five of the books in the series. I'm just grabbing my reviews from Goodreads. I encourage you to check out the entire series if you're a history buff who's a kid at heart. Here's my review for the first in the series. I'll be putting all the reviews up here until I get to GENERATIONS FIVE!!!!!

The Disappearing Rose by Renee Duke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Generally, I liked this book. It was well-written and nicely edited. The history behind the story is fascinating. It sent me off to the internet to research the historical characters. I also liked the description of the Tower being accurate and the up-to-date discovery of Richard III's skeleton. If they allowed a half stars, it would have been 4-1/2, not just 4.

What we didn't get is the danger and running and fighting the bad guys which should be in an MG level book. We don't need bloody and gory, but a bit more in the way of close calls. The future kids should have spent a little time in the dungeon strapped to a torture device or have to fight off the bad guys using a wall sconce in the tower. The worst thing that happens (besides the imminent danger to the two princes) is the future kids might get caught by their grandma as they pop in and out of time.

A little more action and danger would definitely bring this book up to 4 stars. Edited: Rounding up to four rather than down to three is more fair.