In 1916, young Henry Yewbeam’s lily-livered cousin tricks him into staring at the Time Twister marble, sending Henry ninety years into the future, where the cousin is still alive at over a hundred years and just as lily-livered as ever. The other children of time, some of whom are endowed with magic powers from an ancestor, are neatly divided into nice kids and horrid kids. There is never a doubt about which is which, although there are plenty of doubts about whether a rational model of time travel underlies the two (or possibly three) time travel instances. Please see the book’s tags for a short discussion of the issues.
—Michael Main
“People can’t go back. You can’t change history Think about it! When my father was five years old, he lost his brother. It changed his life. He became an only child, grew up as an only child. All his memories are of being an only one. You can’t change that now, can you?”

“No,” Charlie said quickly. “I’m sorry.”

His uncle hadn’t finished. “Henry’s parents mourned him, just as they mourned poor little Daphne. James was their only child and, as a result, he was probably spoiled. His father died in the war and his mother left everything to him, including her lovely cottage by the sea. You can’t change that, can you?”

Tags

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Variants

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  1. The Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo (Egmont Books Ltd, April 2003).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
  2. first release of the alternative, more widely known, title.Charlie Bone and the Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo (Orchard Books, September 2003).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
  3. audio reading.Charlie Bone and the Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo (Listening Library, September 2003).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . narrated by Simon Russell Beale

Translations

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  1. Czech.
    Charlie a kouzelný kuličas
     [Charlie and the magic ball] by Jenny Nimmo (Albatros, 2005).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo as by Jenny Nimmová
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Viola Lyčková
  2. Dutch.
    Charlie Gruzelbeen en de Tijdverdrijver [Charlie Gruelbone and the time turner] by Jenny Nimmo (Ploegsma, 2004).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by unknown persons
  3. French.
    Charlie Bone et le tourne temps [Charlie Bone and the time turner] by Jenny Nimmo (M6 edited by, 2004).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by unknown persons
  4. French.
    Charlie Bone et bille magique [Charlie Bone and the magic ball] by Jenny Nimmo (Gallimard Education, October 2008).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Vanessa Rubio
  5. German.
    Charlie Bone und die magische Zeitkugel [Charlie Bone and the magic time ball] by Jenny Nimmo (Ravensburger Buchverlag, June 2004).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Cornelia Holfelder-von der Tann
  6. Japanese.
    時をこえる七色の玉 [The seven-colored ball that transcends time], as by ジェニー ニモ (徳間 書店 :: Tokuma Shoten, 2006).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo as by ジェニー ニモ
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by 田中 薫子
  7. Modern Greek.
    Τσάρλι Μπόουν: Η Σφαίρα του Χρόνου [Charlie Bone: The sphere of time], as by Τζννυ Νίμμο (Μίνωας :: Minos, September 2004).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo as by Τζννυ Νίμμο
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Αναστασία Λαμπροπούλου
  8. Polish.
    Charlie Bone i magiczna kula [Charlie Bone and the magic ball] by Jenny Nimmo (Zielona Sowa, 2007).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Krystyna Ociepa
  9. Romanian.
    Charlie Bone şi Călătorul în Timp [Charlie Bone and the time traveler] by Jenny Nimmo (Corint Junior, 2009).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Diana Stănciulescu
  10. Russian.
    Чарли Бон. Призрак Из Прошлого [Charlie Bone: Ghost from the past], as by Дженни Ниммо (Азбука-классика :: ABC Classic, 2006).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo as by Дженни Ниммо
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Вера Полищук
  11. Serbian.
    Čarli Boun i vremenski tvister [Charlie Bone and the time twister], as by Dženi Nimo (Leo Commerce, 2009).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo as by Dženi Nimo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by unknown persons
  12. Spanish.
    La esfera del tiempo [The time sphere] by Jenny Nimmo (EDB Infaltil Ficcion, June 2005).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Albert Solé
  13. Thai.
    ชาร์ลี โบน ตอน พายุหมุนแห่งกาลเวลา [Charlie Bone, the whirlwind of time], as by เจนนี่ นิมโม (เพิร์ล พับลิชชิ่ง :: Pearl Publishing, 2005) [Thai publication date from Thai Special].
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo as by เจนนี่ นิมโม
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by วีณา คิ้วงามพริ้ง
  14. Vietnamese.
    Charlie Bone Và Quả Cầu Xoắn Thời Gian [Charlie Bone and the time spiral ball] by Jenny Nimmo ( Nhà xuất bản Trẻ, October 2009).
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Jenny Nimmo
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . translated by Lan Hương

Indexer Notes

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  1. Quote—In the British editions that we have seen and the audio reading narrated by James Coen, Charlie’s Uncle Paton says that James’s “father died in the war,” but at least two American editions omit the words “in the war.”
  2. Release—The British edition with ISBN 1-4052-0125-8 states “First published in Great Britain in 2003 by Egmont Books Ltd.” However, in several different countries, Amazon’s website indicates an October 2002 edition with ISBN 1-4052-0220-3 and an October 2002 date, also from Egmont Books Ltd. We believe that the 2002 edition was a limited edition, possibly only for review and not for resale (because we did see one copy for sale in which the cover was marked this way). Google books also marks a 2002 edition as limited. With this in mind, we have recorded the first edition as being in April 2003, which is the date used at the ISFDB for ISBN 1-4052-0125-8.
  3. Date of Events—The Scholastic Books Teaching Guide states that Henry arrives in 2002, but it also states that Zeke is over one hundred years old. Those two facts don't jive, but fortunately, the book clearly states that Henry traveled almost ninety years, and also that he arrives after the school’s Christmas break. We choose to believe this is January 2006.
  4. Time Travel Model—Henry clearly disappears from January 1916 and reappears in his own young body in 2006. Charlie’s uncle warns that Henry cannot go back in time and change events: “You can’t change that now, can you?” Seems to be a nonbranching [Tag-3477 | deterministic timeline]]. Once something’s been done, it’s done. But this is at odds with everyone’s thought that old Dorothy Bloor used the Time Twister to go back in time and change the fact that she was the victim of horrible abuse at the hands of her own husband and son. ”She’ll be in Paris, just as shee always intended. She’ll have got herself a nice little apartment and soon she’ll be giving violin lessons.” Seems to still be a nonbranching universe, but under some unspecified model where events can be changed. And Dorothy is also told, “It’s a Time Twister. It can take you back to the way you were before.”