I think we all know how much I love old-fashioned time travel books for middle grades (See also: Time Cat, Magic Elizabeth, Tom's Midnight Garden, When Marnie Was There, The Time Garden) -- the stakes are low, and the adventures are as much about discovering, hey, history is a real thing that happened as they are about solving some over-arching narrative problem. Time Sight by Lynn Jonell fits solidly into that genre (even though it's a brand-new book), so it's possible that I like it more than I technically should.
Will and his little brother come to Scotland to stay with relatives while their father tries to negotiate his mother's release -- she's a doctor, working in a dangerous part of the world, and she's been taken hostage by insurgents. Will's relatives are the caretakers of an ancient castle (the real Menzies Castle), and when Will discovers that he has an ability to "see" windows into the past, he, his brother, and his newly met cousin Nan are plunged into Scotland's history, from the Bronze Age to the Roman occupation to the tumultuous middle ages. As Will explores the past, he realizes that the world has always been full of evil AND good, and the choices people make are what steer the course of history.
This is a charming romp through some of Scottish history (and while there's some suspense, everybody -- including Will's kidnapped mom -- ends up okay). Will and his family are likable characters, and Will's struggle with making sense of the evil in the world definitely makes sense to modern readers. I like Jonell's books (she also wrote Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat), but I find them hard to read aloud because the sentences get a bit unwieldy for me when I have to say them -- this one worked better as a solo read for us because of that.

Set in Scotland - sign me up! Time Travel - I am all in. I had a fun reading this book and look forward to sharing the title with my kids!

DNF before the deadline, but wanted to give this one a tentative thumbs up before it expires from NetGalley. This one is a lot better than I thought--complex, well-composed, and suspenseful. Who doesn't love a good time travel novel (even if it is possibly riding on the "Outlander" train)? There are some hiccups--the narrative drags, especially at the beginning, the mystery with the boys' parents is a little too distant and disconnected from the main narrative for me to really care, and I'm not crazy about how negative the older cousins are toward Jamie (although I guess that attitude makes their guilt all the stronger when he goes missing)-- but solid overall. I would have loved this one when I was about ten.

I usually really love time travel books and I do love Scotland but this really didn't work for me. The characters never really developed personalities for me so the book as a whole never came alive.

Time Sight is a fun middle grade adventure book. The main characters, Will, his brother Jaime, and cousin Nora discover that they can travel through time to different periods of their family's history. Will is sent off to Scotland with his brother while their father goes to rescue their mother. The references to his mother's plight were vague but could be disturbing to some younger readers. and in the end I wished for some stronger connection between this part of the story and the adventures that the kids have. While Will and Jaime are acclimating to their new surroundings, Will discovers that he can open windows into the past and Jaime jumps through one. From there, Will and Nora must try to get Jaime back while encountering feuding highlanders, and angry Roman warriors. The time periods that they visit and the locations in a particular area of Scotland will be new to many middle grade readers. I especially liked the additional historical information that the author includes at the end. I will recommend this to my readers who like adventure books as well as my fans of history and battles. I received an advance reader copy from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Scotland, this middle grade novel gets us twisted up in a bit of a time pretzel. Will tries to see the picture in his brother's Magic Eye book and finds himself opening a window to the past. As he practices this new skill of "time sight," he is dismayed to see his little brother Jamie run into the past and disappear. Will and cousin Nan hatch a plan to rescue him and it is the first of many forays into the past. Will is dismayed by the violence he witnesses in each visit, sometimes directed at himself. He agonizes over choices that have to be made in the moment and realizes how difficult it is to care for a child as he is determined to care for his younger brother. The boys are in Scotland waiting for their dad and mom to join them. I would have liked to know more about the mother's experiences as well. Included in an appendix is historic information on the time periods Will visits.

Thank you to MacMillan and NetGalley for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This adventurous story is about Will, who is packed off to Scotland with his younger brother, Jamie, so that his dad can go and rescue the mom, who is being held against her will in another country. The details on that part of the story are sort of sparse, because the big story is that Will and Jamie can time travel. When they arrive in Scotland, Jamie has been given a Magic Eye book and when Will looks at the pictures, a time portal opens up. At first, he has no idea how to control it but has to learn quickly, when Jamie ends up lost in medieval times. It's a fun adventure, but I'm not sure that my students would be super interested because of a lack of connection to Scottish history. It was a good story, but I don't think it would make my list for purchases.

In the tradition of The Egypt Game and Tom's Midnight Garden, Time Sight is an interesting book and a great way to get kids interested in learning about the past. I found it amusing that he used his power by unfocusing his eyes to see one of those "Magic Eye" pictures.

Will and his young brother Jamie are unceremoniously packed off to visit an aunt in Scotland when their mother, who is in a war-torn country helping out, is in danger and their father must go rescue her. Not much explanation is given, and soon the two are on a plane and then staying with their aunt and cousin Nan. The Scottish country side is interesting, and Will hopes to be able to explore. When he does, Jamie's Magic Eye book has mysterious consequences. When trying to squint at the pictures and bring them in to focus, Will opens a portal to other times in the castle's history. At one point, Jamie is sucked in, and ends up being fostered by the local lord. When Nan and Will finally get back to him, a year has passed in the past, and Jamie doesn't quite remember them. Traveling back and forth through time, Nan and Will learn a lot about the past and try to fix what they can about the history of Scotland and of their family in order to get Jamie back.
Strengths: This had a LOT of good Scottish history with which I was not familiar, and I loved the notes in the back that helped back up events mentioned in the book. The setting was interesting, and Nan was a great cousin. Jamie was a bit of a brat, but he and Will are in a difficult situation. The time travel portal is well done, although those Magic Eye books are kind of evil! (I've never seen a picture in one!) There are lots of time travel books set in castles, but this really had some fresh twists to it. With its occasional illustrations, it reminded me a bit of Snyder's Any Which Wall.
Weaknesses: My students are not nearly as fond of time travel as I am.
What I really think: As much as I like this sort of book, my library already has Kent's The Secrets of Hexbridge Castle, Ephron's Castle in the Mist, Fox's The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle, Bruchac's Dragon Castle, Eager's Knight's Castle, Crossley-Holland's Arthur At The Crossing Places, Davies' Longbow Girl, Winthrop's The Castle in the Attic and Whitman's Wildwing. None of them circulate much, so I'm going to have to pass on this title.

This book was an interesting take on time travel. I liked the way they traveled and I liked the way the characters reacted to the traveling. During the book, I was worried about his mother and his father. This was a fun read that kept me interested in it and told a great story!

This is a well-written fantasy for children which includes some wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff! Will and Jamie have just landed in the Scottish highlands where a relative will take care of them while their father goes to bring back their mother from a mission trip. On the ancestral grounds of Castle Menzies, Will develops “time sight”. Throughout the book, Will, Jamie and their cousin Nan travel back in time for a variety of reasons. They meet people from the copper age, iron age, and the middle ages. The author brings many historical events, people and places to life through her vivid descriptions, as well as the afterword information she has included. I will be recommending this book to students in the future!

Time Sight is an absorbing and speedy middle grade reader but one that I fear might struggle to find its audience. The book struggles to strike the right tone, constantly flipping back and forth between a jolly adventure to deep dives into themes of the psychological impact of trauma, mankind’s tendency towards violence, and sudden intervals of intense religiosity. The right reader will no doubt find it a blast, but sensitive readers might feel overwhelmed while older and cannier readers will question why so much of the novel is dedicated to exploring the danger time travel can cause to timelines while resolving several high drama moments by explicitly changing said timeline. It appears to be relatively well researched regarding historical matters, in part because the author’s family history aligns with the subject matter, but young American readers might need more grounding to fully appreciate the various pasts Will, Jamie, and Nan visit.

ARC via NetGalley