Summary and Reviews of The Time Bike by Jane Langton

Media Reviews

Bookshelf In addition to Walden Pond, Concord, Mass., is home to the eccentric Hall family, which has had some remarkable adventures in a series of novels. This time it's Eddy, whose bright red 21-speed birthday bicycle disappears. In its place, a Transcendental Transport truck delivers an old-fashioned one-speed number that can travel through time, with a Time Clock on the handlebars that goes forward and backward. Great fun.

Bookshelf In addition to Walden Pond, Concord, Mass., is home to the eccentric Hall family, which has had some remarkable adventures in a series of novels. This time it's Eddy, whose bright red 21-speed birthday bicycle disappears. In its place, a Transcendental Transport truck delivers an old-fashioned one-speed number that can travel through time, with a Time Clock on the handlebars that goes forward and backward. Great fun.

School Library Journal Eighth-grader Eddy Hall and his older sister Eleanor plan to use their time-traveling bicycle to improve the past and avoid hassles in the future, until several misadventures show them that time is too powerful for even an enchanted bike to change. Readers may recognize Eddy and Eleanor as the protagonists in The Diamond in the Window (1973) and four sequels including the much honored The Fledgling (1980, both HarperCollins). The Time Bike retains the charmingly old-fashioned, somewhat breathless style of the previous books, although the Concord, MA, setting is updated with references to computers, mountain bikes, and the millennium

Kirkus Reviews After 16 years of mostly mysteries for adults, Langton resurrects the Concord cast of Fragile Flag(1984) and its predecessors for a charming, if patchwork, time-travel tale. T….The major characters are easy to like (or, in Preek's case, despise), and the magical events are folded into the fabric of everyday life so neatly that they seem to belong there.

Publishers Weekly Though computer-craving Eddy is a thoroughly up-to-date youngster, this tale has a pleasingly old-fashioned air. A whimsical and enthralling book, infused with a truly American flavor of magical realism.