The young heroine of Jason R. Lady’s middle grade novel TIME PROBLEMS, Rachel, nicknamed Ray, is petrified of beginning middle school, when her grades will start to matter for her future and where bullies are notorious for hazing new students. On the second day of summer between elementary and middle school, Ray and her friend Cooper are commiserating while drawing at Ray’s kitchen table. A bird pecks at the window, and when Ray opens it, the bird gives them a magic pen. With it, Ray draws what she calls a Timeduck—dressed in a wizard robe—as well as an Attack Pig and Henchhogs, who all later come to life and proceed to work on fulfilling their intended goals of creating an endless summer for Ray and protecting her from bullies. This creates a sort of Groundhog Day situation and manifests cracks in time, which the Timeduck aims to fix before it’s too late. With Ray’s creations growing more and more out of her control, she begins to wonder what’s worse: an endless chaotic summer or facing her fears.
While some aspects of the plot, namely the repeating of time Groundhog Day-style and the concept of a child’s drawings coming to life, are not wholly original, what makes the story unique is Ray’s endearing personality. She is the observant narrator of the tale, telling the story in an engaging matter-of-fact voice. Her wants and fears are rendered poignant and distinct through her focused, attentive perspective. While she is narrow-minded in her determination to avoid confronting her fears, she is also sympathetic to Cooper’s wishes, encouraging the Timeduck to resume time so that Cooper may attend the summer theater camp she was so excited for. Ray’s empathy also extends to the inhabitants of her town, as she hopes to protect them from the dangers emerging from the cracks in time, including a rampaging invisible dinosaur, while still achieving her own goals. Her strong desires and sense of responsibility for her creations drive the plot, and her childlike point of view contributes to bursts of humor throughout the rollercoaster of this coming-of-age story.
Lady’s dialogue is snappy and pointed, with the goal of propelling the plot taking precedence over developing characters, aside from Ray. While the writing is grammatically error-free, some sentences are clunky, with physical actions and setting lacking the imagery necessary to depict significant events clearly. Much happens in the world surrounding Ray, though her thoughts remain the major focus of the story. As the story progresses, the plot grows more and more complex, with other mystical figures coming out of the woodwork to complicate what Ray thinks she knows about the magic pen and the nature of time. Timeduck’s shift from quirky companion to secretive villain is predictable yet essential for the story, ramping up the stakes exponentially. These plot points seem to be constructed for the purpose of challenging Ray and pushing her to think more widely and deeply about her actions and how they affect others, not to mention herself. That Ray requires repeated and increasingly more dangerous attempts at changing her mindset slows the pace of her transformation, and just when she seems to be about to concede, she digs in her heels once again. Her questions about whether what she did was right or wrong become exceedingly repetitive as the book goes on. As events compound on one another, the resulting climax finally alters Ray’s perspective, offering an uplifting moral message about hope and optimism for the future.
With a compelling main character and a constantly shifting plot, TIME PROBLEMS is an interesting, if chaotic, middle grade coming-of-age novel.
~Aimee Jodoin for IndieReader