| |
1 |
The iPhone that Saved George Washington
Author:
Potter, David
|
| |
|
Series:
Left behinds, #1
|
| |
|
Class:
Fiction
Age: 8-12
Language: English
|
LC: PZ7.P851
Grade: 3-7
|
|
ISBN-13: 9780385390569
LCCN: 2014006650
Imprint: Crown Books for Young Readers
Publisher: Crown
|
|
Pub Date: 01/06/2015
Availability: Out of Print Confirmed
List: $16.99
|
| |
Hardcover
|
|
|
Physical Description:
|
344 pages ; 22 cm
H 8.6",
W 5.7",
D 1.12",
1.5625 lbs.
|
|
LC Series:
|
|
|
Brodart Sources:
|
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Children
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
|
|
Bibliographies:
|
|
|
Awards:
|
Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
|
|
Starred Reviews:
|
|
|
TIPS Subjects:
|
Historical Fiction
Science Fiction
Humorous Fiction
|
|
BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / United States / Colonial & Revolutionary Periods
JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General
JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories
|
|
LC Subjects:
|
Adventure and adventurers, Fiction
Franklin, Benjamin,, 1706-1790, Fiction
New Jersey, History, Revolution, 1775-1783, Fiction
Time travel, Fiction
Washington, George,, 1732-1799, Fiction
iPhone (Smartphone), Fiction
|
|
SEARS Subjects: |
Adventure fiction
Franklin, Benjamin,, 1706-1790, Fiction
New Jersey, History, Fiction
Time travel, Fiction
United States, History, 1775-1783, Revolution, Fiction
Washington, George,, 1732-1799, Fiction
iPhone (Smartphone), Fiction
|
|
Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
4.5
,
Points: 9.0
Lexile Level:
610
|
|
|
| |
| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 01/01/2015 |
| When an iPhone app goes berserk and shoots Mel and his friends back to 1776 during Christmas break, the kids must determine who shot and killed General George Washington as they race to put things right and save the future America that may no longer even exist. Left behinds series, 352pp. |
|
| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 01/01/2015 |
| Twelve-year-old Mel isn't expecting Christmas to be exciting. His family life has recently come apart, so he and two other classmates are spending the holidays at their posh boarding school, where they're known as "the Left Behinds." When a history teacher escorts the trio to a Christmas Day re-enactment of Washington's crossing of the Delaware, things go strangely haywire, and Mel, Bev and Brandon inexplicably find themselves thrust back in time to December 25, 1776. The resulting nonstop historical action begins when Mel discovers a body lying on haystacks in a stable and realizes that the deceased is none other than "stone-cold dead" General George Washington. Mel determines that a rogue iPhone app, iTime, is to blame, and he and his friends must fix history and save the Revolution. The excitement never stops in this riveting tale, leading Mel to Philadelphia in search of Ben Franklin (whose electricity can recharge Mel's iPhone) and on to Trenton to surprise the Hessian forces. David Potter's debut is smart, funny and the first adventure of the time-traveling Left Behinds. Readers will charge through these super-short chapters like a Revolutionary soldier on the run. Cary, Alice. 352 pages. BOOKPAGE, c2015. |
|
| Booklist | 01/15/2015 |
| Grades 4-7. Bang! George Washington lies bloody on a stable floor--he's history. Or, rather, he won't be history unless Mel, Bev, and Brandon, classmates who are not even friends, figure out why they are standing in a New Jersey stable during the American Revolutionary War and how they can fix whatever seems to have gone horribly wrong. Cameo appearances by Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and the Father of Our Country himself (who turns out to be kind of a blowhard) are the nuts in this madcap fruitcake of a time-travel adventure. Mel, Bev, and Brandon begin to appreciate one another's strengths and work together while dodging bullets and bayonets, riding horses, and enduring the icy, dangerous conditions that nearly broke the Continental army apart prior to the crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776. History and humor collide in this unusual novel, which will please fans of Linda Buckley-Archer's Gideon trilogy and Tom Angleberger and Michael Hemphill's Stonewall Hinkleman and the Battle of Bull Run (2009). Willey, Paula. 352p. Booklist Online. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2015. |
|
| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 02/01/2015 |
| R. Gr. 5-8. Narrator Mel, along with Bev and Brandon, is stuck at his hoity-toity boarding school over winter break. A teacher offers them diversions in the form of field trips, but their jaunt to a reenactment of Washington's crossing of the Delaware goes wildly wrong when their phones transport them back to the time of the actual event and they discover the stone cold dead body of George Washington in a stable. The kids now have several urgent items on their agenda-recharge their phones for the return trip, should they ever figure out how to make it, and reverse the fate of the future Father of Our Country. First things first-track down Benjamin Franklin and beg him to find a way to recharge the phones. If anyone in the eighteenth century can appreciate the technology, it's Franklin, and after much explanation and some fiddling with Leyden jars, the kids are good to go. Next, they make a trip slightly further into the past to waylay Washington's assassins and cross the Delaware while acting as the general's bodyguards. Finally, they transport back, only to find that the iTime app that's caused the trouble has been engineered by some nefarious guy still on the loose. Sequel, anyone? Let's hope so, because the concept of bringing an iPhone into the past is just too cool to stop at one episode. Mel is one very funny narrator, as dependent on his phone ("my precious, my precious") as Potter's tween and teen readers, and the in-character reactions of the Big Names in History to twenty-first century technology are cleverly drawn. This is Magic Tree House all grown up, and kids who once loved that time travel conceit will be delighted all over gain. EB. 352p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2015. |
|
| Horn Book Guide | 11/01/2015 |
| 4. Time travel brings twenty-first-century kids with a new iPhone app called iTime to a dead George Washington in the midst of the Revolutionary War; they must undo the fatal result so a living Washington can cross the Delaware River and continue America's founding unaltered. The preposterous but action-filled plot with humor, adventure, and drama makes for an engaging sci-fi/historical narrative. rss. 344pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2015. |
|
| Kirkus Reviews | 11/01/2014 |
| Debut novelist Potter inaugurates a series with a new twist on time travel. Who needs H.G. Wells' big, clunky time machine when an Apple iPhone app will do the trick? Unfortunately, it's a gigantic mistake that 12-year-old Mel and his classmates Brandon and Bev end up in a stable in 1776 with Gen. George Washington lying stone-cold dead in one of the stalls. The kids are the Left Behinds, students at the snooty Fredericksville School who have nowhere to go during winter break since their parents are rich, successful and too busy to be at home for them. An iTime app has brought them to the farm, but this cannot be: Washington has to cross the Delaware soon, the American Revolution must go on, and who is that Hessian guy with a German Luger (not patented for another 100-plus years)? Even worse, the phone is down to 5 percent power. But Benjamin Franklin comes to the rescue with electricity, and the trio must figure out what to do about George Washington and how to return to the 21st century. Mel's first-person narrative is engaging, the plot is fast-paced, and plenty of history is woven into the tale. Even though there's an awful lot of brand-dropping (skeptics may wonder if Apple paid for product placement), it still goes down easier than the similarly themed Rush Revere books. (Fantasy. 9-12). 352pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
|
| Publishers Weekly | 11/10/2014 |
| Ages 8-12. In the first book in a planned series, three boarding-school students whose parents are too busy to pick them up for the holidays decide to spend an educational Christmas Day at a reenactment of Washington's fateful crossing of the Delaware. But after a new app, iTime, mysteriously appears on their iPhones, they find themselves in a 1776 barn, staring at the freshly shot body of General George Washington. Narrator Mel quickly realizes that he, Bev, and Brandon must travel further back in time in order to stop the assassination and ensure that the Continental Army's leader can lead the revolutionaries to victory. First-time novelist Potter tries to interject humor into the proceedings--Mel's narration is consistently irreverent, and the kids travel to Philadelphia to get Ben Franklin to recharge their iPhone batteries--but it's hard to play the Battle of Trenton for laughs, with 12-year-olds wielding bayonets and a field littered with Hessian corpses. The overlong story doesn't end so much as pause, with this group of young "Left Behinds" confronting their next challenge. Agent: Brian DeFiore, DeFiore and Company. (Jan.). 352p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2014. |
|
| School Library Journal | 01/01/2015 |
| Gr 4-6--Meet General George Washington. Not a reenactor, but the real deal, dead with a bullet hole through the heart the day he's supposed to be leading 2400 Continental soldiers across the Delaware River. The question is how do three modern-day kids, left behind at their prestigious boarding school during Christmas, find themselves in the year 1776 facing a famous dead body. And if things aren't confusing enough, Mel, the history buff of the clueless trio, discovers he's getting texts from someone back at school. It's then that Mel realizes if General Washington does not complete the crossing of the Delaware, the American Revolution will fail. Intent on undoing the damage, the trio teams up with two 18th-century kids to right the wrong that will devastate history. This playful look at one of America's turning points introduces readers to an army of formidable German Hessians, a brilliant Benjamin Franklin, bone-chilling blizzard conditions, and the nation's founding fathers in the making. A skillful blend of humor, history, mystery, and adventure makes for a fun, fast-paced tale that will leave readers a little wiser. Robyn Gioia, Antilles Middle School, Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico. 352p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015. |
|
| ~VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine - Retired Journal) | 02/01/2015 |
| 3Q 4P M J. Mel, Brandon, and Bev are the "Left Behinds"--left behind by parents and friends to spend Christmas break at their private school. Trying to perk up a boring field trip to watch a Christmas Day re-enactment of Washington crossing the Delaware, the three follow an old man into a dark basement, where they manage to activate a new app on their iPhones--iTime. Before they can shout "Victory or death!" the three are transported to Christmas Day 1776, where they discover a nefarious plot to kill George Washington and change the course of history. The book begins after the students have already made the jump back in time, and as the story progresses, Mel continues to remember details of the events that led to their time traveling, although it is not completely clear why they seem to have forgotten them in the first place. This nonlinear approach may be confusing to some readers but it does add suspense. In addition to a curmudgeonly and slightly arrogant Washington, other key historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton make cameo appearances throughout the story. The modern characters, especially the narrator Mel, seem to be both unrealistically familiar and at times completely ignorant of this key battle in the Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, these inconsistencies will likely be less bothersome to students reading for the fast pace and action found in every chapter.--Heather Christensen. Providing a different insight into the first president of the United States, Potter takes readers into a different century, creating quite an incredible adventure. Surprisingly funny yet sufficiently serious, the story has a quick-witted hero who saves the future and the past of America. Recommend it to middle school readers who are looking for a humorous and adventurous book. 4Q, 3P.--Ericka Villegas, Teen Reviewer. 352p. VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, c2015. |
|
9780385390569,dl.it[0].title
|
|