Science Fiction- "Caught"

Book Title:  “Caught  (Missing)”	Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix
Illustrator: n/a	Awards n/a
Book Type:  Chapter book	Approx. Reading Level: 4.6
Age of Content Appropriateness: grade 3	Date Published: September 2012
Genre and Topic: Mystery and Suspense, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Series	Personal Rating of the Book:  4
ISBN: (13 or 10 digit) 978-1416989820

Summary

                Jonah and Katherine are time travelers who end up back in 1903 in the company of Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva.   They learn about a baby, Lieserl, who is living in another town and dying of scarlet fever.  The story progresses when a 13 year old Lieserl arrives.  She has been living in the 21^st century since she was a baby.  Turns out Lieserl is kidnapped and brought to the 21^st century and adopted by a family.  It saves her life.  In addition to this part of the story there is another problem to solve- Albert is so distracted by an event caused by other time travelers that he is neglecting his most famous discovery, E=MC squared.  Jonah and Mileva devise a plan to get Albert back on track.  The story takes many twists and turns as these time traveling kids try to work out the problem they are thrown back in time to solve.

Ways to use this book

• ·         The book provides some great background information on Albert Einstein and his wife, Mileva, who was also a scientist.

• ·         The author’s website – Margaret Peterson Haddix

• ·         This could spark students to want to write their own time travel story. 
• ·         The book was just published last month so I hope to see more internet resources for it soon!

Vocabulary Words

• ·         malevolent- (kindle location 179) meaning to do harm such as a person who wants to have some ill befall another person

• ·         Elucidator (throughout the book) The object they use to help them when they time travel – it is based on the word, “e·lu·ci·date/iˈlo͞osiˌdāt/ Make (something) clear; explain: "work that will help to elucidate this matter"; "they would not elucidate further"

• ·         Time hollow- (kindle location 291- and throughout) A place without time- the time travelers can exist there without experiencing any passage of time

• ·         Crystalline- (kindle location 391 and throughout)  Very clear- this is how the appearance of an invisible time traveler is described

• ·         Tracers- (kindle location 488 and throughout)  This word is used to describe the glowing shadows the time travelers see when they have affected the time period and something is not where it would be if they had not intervened.

One Trait of the 6+1 Traits to Highlight

I would highlight the ideas trait.  This book has created a wonderful set of time traveling tools and places that help to give the story plausibility in a science fiction/ fantasy kind of way.   The kids use the elucidator to help them in translating languages and to make them invisible.  It is sort of an all purpose helper  which makes some parts of the time travel more likely if this device existed.

“But Jonah knew that this was one of those times when looks were deceiving.  Elucidators were like that.  They always took on the appearance of some ordinary object: a rock in the fifteenth century, a candleholder in the seventeenth, a cell phone in the twenty-first.  But Elucidators had provided a way for Jonah to communicate across time, to turn invisible when it was too dangerous for him to be seen ,and to travel through time in the first place. “ (kindle location 209)

Concerns with This Book: (if any)- The only concern I have with this book is some of the content.  There is discussion regarding the birth of the daughter, Liserl, who was born before Mileva and Albert were married.  The time travel children could not understand what the big deal was and while I like that Haddix was trying to show the change in attitudes from 1903 to the present, I could see this theme being somewhat problematic  depending on the background of the student body.