The Time Pirate: A Nick McIver Time Adventure (Nick McIver Time Adventures)
Grade 5–8—This installment in the series finds 12-year-old Nick once again saving the world on several fronts. It's 1939, and he must defend his home, a small British island, against the looming Nazi invasion. But the Nazis are not his only enemies; using a time-travel device invented by da Vinci, he also battles 18th-century pirates who've kidnapped his sister. In a further wrinkle, the pirates, who are equipped with a time-travel device of their own, threaten to change the outcome of the American Revolution. Nick feels compelled to help General Washington and his troops, even though doing so makes him a traitor, because he knows that the support of the United States will become crucial to the Allies in World War II. Swashbuckling action sequences and scenes of derring-do abound. However, hackneyed language detracts from the action, and clichéd stereotypes of Native Americans and African-American slaves make this title seem out of place in contemporary children's literature.—Hayden Bass, Seattle Public Library, WA(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.