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Tarfumes.com - Tanglewreck
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List Price: $6.95
Our Price: $6.95
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781599900810
ISBN: 1599900815
Label: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2007-05-15
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Release Date: 2007-05-15
Studio: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
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Editorial Reviews:
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Something frightening is happening with time. One moment, a time tornado rages through the streets of London, and those caught up in its path vanish without a trace. The next moment a woolly mammoth is seen lumbering along the banks of the River Thames. At the center of these bizarre time warps is a house called Tanglewreck, which is home to eleven-year-old Silver, her bony and bad-tempered aunt, Mrs Rokabye, and a mysterious clock known as the Timekeeper. Silver doesn’t understand exactly what the Timekeeper does, but when two sinister figures come looking for it, she knows instinctively that she must guard it with her life.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Scintillating Science Fiction
Comment: When a London school bus disappears in a Time Tornado, eleven-year-old Silver knows the fabric of time is ripping. She wonders if her parents disappeared in the same way and whether she'll find them in some other place - or time. Silver finds herself in the eye of the storm when Abel Darkwater interrogates her about the Timekeeper, a magic clock that controls time. Darkwater insists that Silver knows where it is, though she's never even heard of it. The Throwbacks, a disenfranchised race of near-humans that lives underground, befriends Silver and reveals her destiny as the Child with the Golden Face who alone can heal time if she's strong enough to sacrifice what she loves most.
Jeanette Winterson's Tanglewreck (Bloomsbury Publishing: 2006) illuminates the science in science fiction. On her quest, Silver navigates the Space-Time Continuum, pets Schrodinger's Cat, travels through worm holes, contemplates relativity at the Einstein Line, grapples with "spooky action at a distance," encounters quantum physics, reconstitutes herself from wave form, reckons with a black hole's event horizon, and discovers the universal force that travels faster than the speed of light. Even Stephen Hawking makes a cameo. The writing is unremarkable, and lapses at times into sentimentality, exposition, and cliché. And a race relations subplot about the half-emancipated Throwbacks is uninspired and at times toes a racist line. But the story's brisk pace and scintillating subject matter compensate for the thematic missteps and average prose. Two competing villains, who have traveled through time seeking the Timekeeper for centuries, elevate the story. Regalia Mason, in particular, is a complex, modern adversary whose character feels fresh. As Silver draws closer to the Timekeeper, she begins to sense the sacrifice required to mend time and searches for the courage and conviction to complete her quest.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So much better than I had expected!
Comment: Tanglewreck is a thoroughly engaging book. It's a page turner and for most readers, especially for those for whom this book is intended, a bit of a mind-bender. The story is suspenseful and just complicated enough, the names are wonderfully bestowed upon each character, and Winterson takes the reader to wonderful and amazing times and places. I did not catch the condescending tone mentioned by another reviewer. But then, I'm not a kid anymore. That same reviewer mentioned Pullman's Golden Compass and I was reminded of that book frequently while reading this one. There's no doubt in my mind that Pullman is a genius and if Tanglewreck isn't quite on that level yet, I do think it's a marvelous read and one that will be enjoyed by many kids (and adults who love YA lit) over the years. Read it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Comment: Time is not behaving itself. Trains stall in time, then rush ahead as if to catch up, pyramids appear in London, a school bus gets sucked into a Time Tornado and vanishes, and there have been woolly mammoth sightings in the park. Most people can't make any sense of it, and it's getting worse. And the people who do understand it, well, they might be the most dangerous of all.
Silver is an eleven-year-old orphan, alone in the world. Well, not completely alone. She has Mrs. Rockabye, the aunt who mysteriously appeared after the death (or maybe disappearance) of Silver's family. Silver thinks that she'd rather be alone than with Mrs. Rockabye, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon. For now Silver's greatest comfort is her house, Tanglewreck. It comforts her, soothes her, and even speaks to her. She knows about the strangeness of time, but as long as she can stay at Tanglewreck, she doesn't seem to be too concerned.
Abel Darkwater knows about time, and he understands why it's behaving strangely. Abel is sure that time can be controlled, and that whoever controls time will control the universe. Abel intends to be that person. He's sure that all he needs is the Timekeeper. And he's positive that Silver knows where it is. After all, Silver's dad was bringing it to Abel on the day the family died.
Silver is in a race against time, literally, to keep the Timekeeper safe. If only she knew where it was. Or what it was. With the help of her strange, new, old friend, Gabriel, Silver will have to travel to unknown places and times on a quest for something she's never seen.
I've always loved time travel stories, and this one is no exception. This is the first story I've read that has dealt with the actual alteration of time as opposed to the adjustments of the main character inside a particular time. Although that's in here, too. And, I have to say that this is the closest I've ever come to understanding Quantum Theory. (Something I'm sure would be very disappointing to all of the science teachers I've ever had.) Don't let that intimidate you though. Previous knowledge is (obviously) not required. Whether or not you come away with an understanding of that is not really even the point, though a nice side benefit. The point is that this is a very good, interesting, and well-written story. Plain and simple. You should read it.
Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman
Customer Rating:
Summary: I wanted this to be brilliant
Comment: Tanglewreck seemed like a perfect combination of two of my great loves -- Jeanette Winterson's work and children's books -- until I actually read it. Silver's a wonderful heroine, and the plot had heaps of potential, but Winterson seems to have entered a new genre without bothering to learn much about the way children's books work. Winterson seems to be writing for children from a great distance, as though her own early childhood isn't quite real to her; it doesn't work. Her settings never came to life and after the first quarter of the book, the tone became increasingly sentimental and condescending...a fatal flaw in a book written for children.
Those seeking compelling, multilayered fiction for children would do better to try THE GOLDEN COMPASS (Philip Pullman) or the less famous but completely delightful FLY BY NIGHT (Frances Hardinge). Winterson fans who'd like to read luminous, literary prose applied to fantasy-genre tropes could do no better than to try LUD IN THE MIST, by Hope Mirrlees (a contemporary and acquaintance of Virginia Woolf).
Customer Rating:
Summary: A compelling adventure nearly impossible to put down
Comment: Something frightening is happening to time: a 'time tornado' rips through London and a house called Tanglewood, home to eleven-year-old Silver and her aunt, are at the heart of the disturbance. For the clock known as the Timekeeper in their house controls all time - a clock Silver has guarded until its disappearance. Silver's journey to regain the clock before it ends the world results in a compelling adventure nearly impossible to put down.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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