Jack Bolt and the Highwaymen's Hideout

January 1, 2008
Jack Bolt discovers that there is a door to the past in his grandmother's house, and he befriends a group of eighteenth-century highwaymen who come through it. The intriguing premise doesn't quite live up to its potential since Jack's more of a passive, go-with-the-flow protagonist than one who takes charge. Readers will most likely be entertained by lead robber Lord Henry Vale.

(Copyright 2008 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

December 1, 2007
Time travel, both ways, provides the action in this light adventure story. Jack, age 10, wakes up to find eighteenth-century highwaymen in his bedroom in his grandmother's attic. It is the perfect hideout for the crooks, ?a secret room in another time, ? a place to store their booty. When they go home, Jack travels with them, thrilled to be part of the gang. There is no violence. In fact, thegang leader, famous gentleman-robber Henry Vane, prides himself on his charm, and there's a bit ofmystery and romance surrounding his identity. The stand-and-deliver scenarios are close to kids? games, and readers will enjoy the contrasts between today's electronicsand a timewhen trees, not pylons, were everywhere. Hearn?soccasional, small black-and-white illustrations show the ?sleepover? fun and the wry action, whichcontinues to the end as Jack and Henry gettogether to take advantage of the slipp in time.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)