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Children of the Red King #2

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

by Jenny Nimmo
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?”

DEBUT
The Time Twister (Egmont Books Ltd, April 2003).
VARIANTS
3 English variants
TRANSLATIONS
14 translations
TAGS(SPOILERS!)
Time Periods Timeline Models
  • Hypertime: We believe that Dorothy Bloor’s travel stays in the timeline, but also changes it.
  • Single Static Timeline: Regarding Henry’s travel, Charlie is told: “You can’t change that now, can you?”
Time Travel Methods Groupings
TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)
  1. From Bloor’s Academy, 12 January 1916 ⋙ to Bloor’s Academy, early January 2006. Note: Henry.
  2. From Bloor’s Academy, early January 2006 ⋙ to Bloor’s Academy, possibly the time when Dorothy was injured. Note: Dorothy Bloor.
  3. From Bloor’s Academy, early January 2006 ⋙ to inside a painting of Skarpo at an unknown time. Round trip. Note: It’s uncertain whether this is actual time travel by Charlie, but he does bring an object back with him.
INDEXER NOTES (SPOILERS!)
  • 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.”
  • 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). <a href='https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%2Fabout%2FThe_Time_Twister.html%3Fid%3DaS-ZAAAACAAJ'>Google books</a> 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 <a href='http%3A%2F%2Fwww.isfdb.org%2Fcgi-bin%2Ftitle.cgi%3F911015'>ISFDB</a> for ISBN 1-4052-0125-8.
  • Date of Events—The <a href='https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scholastic.com%2Fteachers%2Flesson-plans%2Fteaching-content%2Fcharlie-bone-and-time-twister-discussion-guide%2F'>Scholastic Books Teaching Guide</a> 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.
  • 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[/ex]. 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.”