Book: Nick of Time
Author: Ted Bell
Pages: 448
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin
Reviewed by: Kat (Age 21)
Amazon.com Price: $12.21
Purchase: Here

Young Nick lives on an Island in the English Channel. The year is 1939 and rumors of a second world war are beginning to brew. Nick dreams of living an adventure like the boys in his books and soon finds far more then he expected when he finds a strange box hidden away on the cliffs of the Island that appears both old and brand new and strangest of all; has his name on it. On his return home he runs into a vile pirate named Billy Blood who is looking for the box and kidnaps Nick’s dog Jip.
When the mystery of the box is finally revealed Nick finds himself traveling back in time to save his ancestor’s boat from certain destruction during the Napoleonic wars while in the present his little sister is kidnapped by Nazis!
It’s a bigger adventure then he ever dreamed of but Nick is no ordinary boy. Will he be able to save his dog, sister, Uncle and England itself?

I’ll admit I wasn’t too excited about reading this book. It’s been a good ten years since I read a book about a twelve year old hero and I was expecting something rather childish and boring. Boy was I wrong! Nick of Time is author Ted Bell’s first novel for children and though he does manage to write the book with an innocence entirely fitting of the era it’s set in, he in no way skimps on detail or adventure. I truly felt like I was on a seventeenth century sailing ship, scrambling around in the rigging or deep under the ocean in the fastest U-boat ever built. Most of all I was heartbroken when the story ended.

Nick of Time is a fantastic read! Check it out! You won’t regret it!

(Nick of Time is available from May 13th, 2008)