Torn by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Torn by Margeret Peterson Haddix

Science Fiction, Adventure

Age - 10-13

Grade - 6-8

344 pages, hardcover

c. 2011

     Torn is the 4^th book in The Missing Series. The basic premise of the series is that important children from history have been kidnapped, by time travelers from the future, at the point right before they disappeared or died. The plan was to bring them into the future as babies to be adopted by wealthy parents. This has disrupted history and time so Jonas and Katherine have been working to return the missing children to their proper time in history and restore time. However, beginning in the last book and continuing in this one a new element has been added. The villain, Second Chance, is changing history to suit his own ideas and this has disrupted time so much that it is near collapsing. This would result in the end of all things, past, present and future. Due to what Second did in the last book, Sabotaged, time traveler J.B., and missing children Andrea, Brendan and Antonio are trapped in 1600.

                Jonas and Katherine find themselves on the deck of Henry Hudson’s ship the Discovery just before a mutiny takes place. The boy from history that they are trying to help, John Hudson, Henry Hudson’s son, is missing so J.B. instructs Jonas to impersonate him with the help of a special costume from the future. Katherine is instructed to use the Eucidator to become invisible. They realize, early on, that history has been dramatically changed. Henry Hudson has a map that he shouldn’t have, showing the Northwest Passage that now exists. Second Chance is responsible for all of this and unless Jonah and Katherine help him all time will end in 1611. Second’s plan is to send Jonah and Katherine back to their first moments on Hudson’s ship and to have them do things differently this time. Without precise instructions Jonah decides to try and save the sailor Wydowse from being murdered by Second. As John Hudson Jonah challenges Hudson’s authority and insists they leave the small shallop they have been put in during the mutiny and go to the winter cabin they had used last year. When they do this time is literally torn apart and there are now two separate versions of time. One version is the current one and the second is how things went the first time Jonah and Katherine were there. However, only Jonah and Katherine can see the two versions of time. Eventually they also see the traces of the sailors from original time before they came. When the sailors merge with their tracers time in 1611 is restored.

            Time outside of 1611 has been so damaged by the actions of Second that JB, Andrea, Brendan and Antonio, from the previous book, are still stuck in 1600. Only a heroic and self-sacrificing action by Jonah will enable them to escape.