Torn ~ Margaret Peterson Haddix

Torn (The Missing Series: Book 4) ~ Margaret Peterson Haddix

SPOILER ALERT! This book is part of a series. If you have not read Found, Sent and Sabotaged, read on at your own risk!

Jonah and Katherine have been hurled through time yet again, and they have no idea where or when they are at first. They soon discover that they are on Henry Hudson’s ship, Discovery, and a mutiny is afoot. Jonah must disguise himself as Hudson’s son, John, and Katherine hides by becoming invisible. Jonah and Katherine are thrust from one life-threatening situation to another in this fast paced tale. Jonah and Katherine don’t know who to trust, but they do know that history has been dramatically changed. In the past their missions have been to set history back on course, so that is what they set out to do once again, but they soon discover that someone is working against them. Time is very near collapsing, causing the end of all things past, present, and future. Will Jonah and Katherine be able to stop it?

I love the idea of this series: Missing children stolen from the point in time before they were lost, brought to the future and raised by foster parents as modern day kids. The first book, Found, is all about Jonah’s discovery of who he is. Just unraveling the mystery (which sets up the rest of the series) kept me completely enthralled. Several characters go back in time to England during the War of the Roses in the second book, Sent. I love this period of history, and again, I was very entertained and captivated by the story. In book three, Sabotaged, the characters travel back to the site of the Roanoke colony, but another element is introduced to the series as well. A villain from the future named Second, who is on a mission to make his own version of history, steps in to really complicate things. The reader isn’t really aware of Second or his plans until the end of book three, so things don’t get really confusing until book four, which is Torn.

To begin with, I didn’t really find Henry Hudson’s search for the infamous Northwest Passage a very intriguing historical subject. After all, we know he didn’t find one. But when I reached the end of the story, I found that Margaret Peterson Haddix had written lengthy author’s notes on what is known about Henry Hudson’s last voyage and the fate of the lost explorer. The real mystery is actually very interesting. But Haddix had so much to explain about Jonah and Katherine’s story; there wasn’t really time to delve into Hudson’s story. And even if there had been time it wouldn’t have mattered. Jonah and Katherine enter another version of history very early on in the book because Second makes changes and sets history on a new course. So Torn was lacking one of the things I love about the series, a way to learn about an actual historical event. The events in Torn were mostly created by Haddix. And the facts and tidbits that were true were things that I already knew. I will say, however, that I think most middle grade readers could learn something of history by reading this book. Younger readers have probably not read the amount of historical fiction I have or taken the advanced history classes that I have for that matter.

I still really enjoyed Haddix’s style. Her characters are very distinct and likable. I’ve come to know and love them, and they feel like real kids. I often complain that books about middle grade kids have characters that don’t act and think like middle grade kids. That is not the case in The Missing series. Although there are times when I question how much these kids remember about their social studies classes. (They must have awesome teachers at that school! Ha!) The pacing of the story is also excellent. It keeps moving at a fast clip. There’s never any time for the reader to get bored. There’s almost always some sort of action or danger afoot. And I love that Haddix doesn’t insult her readers by making the story too predictable. So far every book in this series has kept me guessing about what will happen right up until the very end. I have become a very analytical reader. It’s hard to surprise me, so that’s really saying something! This series should not be read out of order. So hopefully anyone reading Torn will have already read books one through three. The people reading this book are probably already fans, and if you are a fan of the Missing series, you will appreciate Torn for what it is: another fast paced adventure, another chance to get to spend some time with Jonah and Katherine, and a vehicle that keeps the series moving on! Yes, there are three more books in this series, and I am very glad for that. I just hope the next one happens in a more interesting time and place. I want to know what happens next, but I would also love to learn more about another one of history’s lesser known mysteries.