Praise for Infinity Ring #1: A Mutiny in Time :
"Tight plotting, snappy dialogue... the story moves at a breathless pace.” -- Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Percy Jackson & the Olympians
"'History is broken, and we need your help to fix it.' What kid could turn down an invitation like that?... It's a quick, straightforward adventure with a successful mix of action, adventure, and historical substance." -- Publishers Weekly
"Save a place on your shelves for this fast-paced and fun series about historical time travel." -- Voice of Youth Advocates
Praise for Infinity Ring #2: Divide and Conquer :
"Many history-loving kids will be sucked in, while others will be hooked by the accompanying full-color poster-map... and corresponding online game." -- Booklist
Praise for Infinity Ring #3: The Trap Door :
"Three novels into the series, the Infinity Ring pulls off a shocking twist. This book earns the year's strangest compliment: It doesn't read like a time-travel story. It has all the usual tropes: impossible technology, split-second escapes, glimpses of the future. There's even an inventive variation on the grandfather paradox. But in its best scenes, it reads like a historical novel." -- Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Infinity Ring #4: Curse of the Ancients :
"Fans of the series will already be hooked, but even more skeptical readers may be a little curious what happens next." -- Kirkus Reviews
In this third volume of the "Infinity Ring" series, eleven year old friends Dak and Sera, paired with sixteen-year-old Riq, find themselves in 1850 Maryland. While it is several years before the Civil War, issues of slavery are already coming to a head. In addition, the evil organization SQ may be behind an organized proslavery group that is disrupting the Underground Railroad and ultimately threatening to upset history. The children are on the side of the abolitionists, but without a local Hystorian to give them direction, they find themselves in danger. Riq is even captured and assumed to be a runaway slave. He wants to do the right thing and help a woman and her young child whom were captured at the same time, but as Riq discovers the people he meets are his own distant relatives, is he putting his own existence in jeopardy? Through Riq, readers experience issues of slavery first-hand. More than just a textbook of facts, this book offers readers a good story with a mix of history, light humor, character, action adventure, mystery, and fact. Altogether, the book includes many historical details, which are well-integrated within the story action. In this way, the facts are given context and children are more likely to understand, and remember them, later. The book also points educators to a website complete with teaching resources from discussion questions to author interview media. The free accompanying online game likewise strikes a good balance between historical facts and fun, compliments the book nicely, and employs a role-playing setup with smaller skill games incorporated throughout. Altogether, this latest installment of the best selling "Infinity Ring" series is sure to please educators and engage readers in grades four through seven. Reviewer: Jennifer Greene
Children's Literature - Jennifer Greene
Three novels into the series, the Infinity Ring pulls off a shocking twist. This book earns the year's strangest compliment: It doesn't read like a time-travel story. It has all the usual tropes: impossible technology, split-second escapes, glimpses of the future. There's even an inventive variation on the grandfather paradox. But in its best scenes, it reads like a historical novel. Riq, an African-American boy, has traveled back to a time before Emancipation. In the book's most frightening passage, he's standing on an auction block, next to a young woman and her two children. In the moment, it's possible to believe that they really will be sold as slaves. The historical detail is convincing enough that readers may be genuinely afraid, even if they've read dozens of time-travel stories and know how they're supposed to end. Series fans will find all the fight scenes and riddles they've come to expect. (Unfortunately, they'll also find the terrible dialogue. At one point, there's a pun involving the phrase "Riq rolls.") The shifts in tone keep readers on their feet. Anyone who opens the book looking for science fiction will find the elements that make those stories work, but when readers finish this novel, they may think about picking up a history book. (Science fiction. 8-12)
