An engaging autistic 12-year-old is the heroine of this eco-thriller that marks poet Agbabi’s debut for young readers
The heroine of poet Patience Agbabi’s debut novel, for eight-to-12 year olds, is special in several ways. Twelve-year-old Elle lives in a British town with her Nigerian grandmother; Mum died in a car crash and Dad left soon after. Elle is autistic, and can find ordinary life a bit tricky. She is a “Leapling” too, born on 29 February, and – last but definitely not least – she is one of the few such children who have “The Gift”, an ability to leap through time.
Elle is a pupil at Intercalary International, a school for kids with a variety of special needs, but things aren’t going well for her. Learning to control The Gift is hard, and she is being bullied. She’s looking forward to a school trip, though, a “Leap” to the HQ of the Time Squad in the year 2048. They are the guardians of chronology, an elite group of time travellers who stop criminals from changing the past and rupturing the space-time continuum. There’s a strong environmental theme here – the future is pretty much carbon neutral and meat free, and the Time Squad is tough on all eco-crimes.
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