Nick McIver Literature Guides
From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 6–9—This is an immensely appealing book about 12-year-old Nick McIver, son of a lighthouse owner, who lives on Greybeard Island off the coast of Great Britain in 1939. Opening with a thrilling near-fatal sailboat excursion, the action kicks into high gear when Nick finds a sea chest containing a mysterious glowing globe. Hunted by pirates from the past who seek the globe, a time-travel device, Nick finds himself bouncing back and forth in time fighting exceedingly nasty pirates, Napoleon's naval forces in 1805, and Nazi spies in 1939. Nick is the pluckiest, most likable boy-hero since Robert Lewis Stevenson's David Balfour (Kidnapped). With great battle scenes; lots of nautical jargon; and themes of courage, integrity, and honor, this book will appeal to restless boys who can never find books written just for them. Three huzzahs and a great big 21-gun salute to Bell for his first novel for kids. Hopefully, it won't be his last.
—Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK
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The hero of the Nick McIver Adventures Through Time series is back. Twelve-year-old Nick lives on Greybeard Island, the tiniest of the British Channel Islands. The story picks up soon after Nick of Time (St. Martin's Griffin, 2008/VOYA June 2008), during the summer of 1940. World War II is underway, France has fallen, and England is bracing for invasion. Nick and his friend Gunner refurbish Nick's father's World War I fighter plane. Nick learns to fly and undertakes an incredibly risky bombing raid on the Nazi Guernsey Island airfield. Meanwhile his younger sister Kate is kidnapped by the pirate Billy Blood and taken back to 1781 Port Royal, Jamaica. Archrivals Blood and Nick are in possession of the only two time travel machines, Leonardo da Vinci's Tempus Machina. While rescuing Kate, Nick learns of Blood's plan to attack a French fleet on its way to Yorktown to prevent the retreat of General Cornwallis. If Blood succeeds, the Battle of Yorktown will be lost, the Revolutionary War will be lost, and America will never exist. Without help from America, England will lose World War II. This adrenaline-rich story emphasizes courage, duty, and heroism. Nick relishes every chance for adventure, and readers will happily follow him into battle and his encounters with George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Winston Churchill. It is not a perfect novel, marred by a dull introduction, repetitiveness, and occasionally suspect manipulation of the logic of time travel. Thrilled fans will not care in the least. Reviewer: Angela Carstensen