When it comes to humor, this book has it, and not just from Fruithandler and his crew. Brady added clever ways to incorporate pop culture references: Hollaback Girl, Chewbaca, Hakuna Matata, Kwanza Chalupa, and others. I think I snorted a few times.
What kept me reading was the characters. I kept wanting to know if Deirdre was going to make it back home. Deirdre was remarkably calm most of the time when dealing with her situation. I know I would have cried in a corner if I somehow was brought back in time, especially if I was only in 8th grade. The cast of zany intellects cracked me up. Col. Fruithandler and his crew were hilarious. They were too smart for their own good which provided some great dialogue between all of them. As the story progresses, you don’t see much of that crew, and I found myself actually missing them! You can tell Brady had fun writing this book. When you can see that oozing from the pages, what more can you ask of a writer?
Deirdre was not surprised that her current predicament came courtesy of an old, dead white guy. It was Colonel Ellsworth Fruithandler’s miraculous Time Engine that had left her stranded two centuries before her birth. With both Fruithandler and his Engine gone, Deirdre was learning firsthand that Colonial America was a dangerous place for a young, friendless black girl.
If she wants to go home again, Deirdre has just one task to complete. Armed with an eighth-grade understanding of physics and whatever she can scavenge from an eighteenth century farm, she needs to build a working time machine.
About the Author
Allen R. Brady lives in New York’s Orange County. In addition to the TARBABIES novel series, he has written plays for the Air Pirates Radio Theater, which are performed in venues throughout the Hudson Valley.