Gideon the Cutpurse - Linda Buckley-Archer

Linda Buckley-Archer's Gideon the Cutpurse has been on my radar for some time, thanks to the LoveReading for Kids website where I read an extract of the first chapter. This book is the gripping start to a trilogy, which ends on an absolute cliff-hanger !

This first book tells the tale of two British teenagers, Peter Schock and Kate Dyer. Kate is the eldest of several children and comes from a happy family home. Peter is an only child, whose parents both have high-powered jobs (his mother is a film director and is currently working on a film in LA). It's almost Christmas and the day Peter has been for so long has finally arrived. Today his father is going to take him out for a day to belatedly celebrate his twelfth birthday (3 months late). However, Peter's visions of sledging on the dry ski slope, lunch in London and a Premiership football match are dashed when his father breaks the news that he has to go to an important work-related meeting. Instead, Peter will be going to Derbyshire for the weekend with his au pair, staying with the Dyers. Peter is desperately upset at his birthday treat being postponed yet again and yells after his retreating father "I hate you!"

He and Margrit arrive in Derbyshire before lunch and Kate's dad takes the two of them to the science lab where he works in order to see his colleague Tim's antigravity machine. Kate and her father show Peter their "party trick", which involves touching a statically charged metal dome. Unfortunately, Kate's dog Molly leaps into the room through the ground floor window and when Kate touches Molly, she races away in sheer terror. Kate, Peter and Dr Dyer give chase, and the next thing that Peter and Kate know, they're waking up in a Derbyshire valley. What they don't immediately know is that they've been accidentally transported through time by the antigravity machine, and it's now 1763 !

Fortunately for the pair, they are befriended by a kindly young gentleman named Gideon and the upper class family by whom he has recently been employed. Before very long they're off on the adventure of a lifetime intending to get back the antigravity machine, which has been take by the utterly creepy yet dangerously powerful Tar Man (whose name was born out of his tragic youth), whilst struggling all the while to adjust to living in the 18th Century. Back in the 21st century, a massive police hunt has been launched for the missing children, but Dr Dyer and his colleagues aren't helping the police with their enquiries as they're desperate to keep to themselves what the antigravity machine can do. However, their plans are thwarted time and again by the children re-appearing, in 18th century dress, at intervals, usually in odd situations, and often in a fairly transparent state ! What is going on ? And will Peter and Kate ever get back to their families and the 21st century ?

Gideon the Cutpurse is also available from Amazon.com, and if you want to know more, check out the Gideon the Cutpurse website.