FernFolio

Eleven year-old Max Remy has made up for her lack of friends and her parents’ constant attention elsewhere by creating a rich and exciting fantasy for herself.  In her imagination, she is Alex Crane, top spy for Spy Force, and regularly pits herself against the world’s greatest villains and wins.
Max has been looking forward to the summer holidays.  Harassed by classmates because of her quick mind, her love of scientific inquiry, a stand-offish nature and an apparent lack of a sense of humour, she’s desperate for her father to arrive from Los Angeles, where he’s been living since her parents’ divorce, and for their summer vacation to start.  But it turns out her father’s jumped at the chance to work on a new project and won’t be coming to New York after all and, since her mother’s high-profile PR job with a top television network keeps her out every night, instead Max is going to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle on their Pennsylvania farm.
Eleanor and Ben live a long way from the crazy urban life of New York City.  Their farmhouse is old and unkempt, and, without television or a modern bathroom or kitchen, rather more than Max is prepared to put up with for two months.  And then there is Linden, the twelve year-old country hick who does chores around the farm for Eleanor and Ben and who appears to live more at their place than at his own.
However, before Max can figure out how to make a quick exit and head back home, she learns that Ben is a brilliant world-class scientist who has been working on an invention that could radically change the world, his Matter Transporter, which instantaneously moves objects from one point to another.  She also discovers that Ben has an equally brilliant brother, Francis, with whom he used to work but argued with over how their work would be used.  When she realizes how much Ben misses his brother, Max decides that she will use the Matter Transporter to travel to London, England, where Francis lives and persuade him to return with her to Pennsylvania.  She asks Linden, whose calm and understanding nature have started to break through her reserve, to go along with her.  Departing in the middle of the night, Max’ plan is to find Francis and return with him to her aunt and uncle’s farm before they know she and Linden are gone.
But their arrival in London and their questions at Francis’ old address and his former place of work begin a chain of events that end with the two kids kidnapped and in grave danger of losing their lives.
In Search of the Time and Space Machine is a fast-paced adventure that will appeal to readers from grade 4 to 6.
FernFolio Editor