Timeslip Tuesday: Time Cat

It's Timeslip Tuesday again at Charlotte's Library, when Charlotte reviews time travel fiction for kids and invites others to do the same! Today I'd like to talk about one of my favorite books from childhood: Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth, by Lloyd Alexander.

Jason is an ordinary boy with, he thinks, an ordinary cat named Gareth. Until, that is, Jason wishes aloud that he had nine lives and Gareth speaks up! Cats don't really have nine lives, Gareth explains, but: "I can visit nine different lives. Anywhere, any time, any country, any century." What's more, he can take Jason, too.

Thus begins Jason and Gareth's rather whirlwind sampling of world history from a cat's and a boy's eye view. From Egypt in 2700 B.C.E. to America in 1775, the two adventure across every inhabited continent. They confront emperors, march in battle, face imprisonment, and lollygag with Leonardo da Vinci.

Meanwhile, Jason—and readers—learn about cats' role in the various cultures they visit. Cats in ancient Egypt are revered; those in medieval Germany are feared as creatures of the Devil. Some places they're regarded as good luck, other places bad; sometimes they're treated with affection, other times detested.

Time Cat is an unusual, entertaining, and informative middle grade adventure, much more light-hearted than Alexander's Prydain or Westmark sequences. What's more, it gets away from Alexander's plot and character formulas that have caused more than one person to ask: Why did Lloyd Alexander write the same book over and over again? Take a peek!