Time Villains

by Victor Piñeiro

Overview

"Magnificent."—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

Story Thieves meets Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library in this wacky, hilarious, and fast-paced middle-grade series starter, with the perfect combination of magic, imagination, and adventure.

Javi Santiago is trying his best not to fail sixth grade. So, when the annual "invite any three people to dinner" homework assignment rolls around, Javi enlists his best friend, Wiki, and his sister, Brady, to help him knock it out of the park.

But the dinner party is a lot more than they bargained for. The family's mysterious antique table actually brings the historical guests to the meal…and Blackbeard the Pirate is turning out to be the worst guest of all time.

Before they can say "avast, ye maties," Blackbeard escapes, determined to summon his bloodthirsty pirate crew. And as Javi, Wiki, and Brady try to figure out how to get Blackbeard back into his own time, they might have to invite some even zanier figures to set things right again…

Praise for Time Villains:

"Piñeiro scores with this tale of friendship, magic, and adventure... Magnificent."—Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

"It's got heart, it's got thrills, it's got pirates! You won't be able to put down this action-packed, relentlessly funny adventure."—Sarah Mlynowski, author of the New York Times bestselling Whatever After series

"A magical table that pulls in famous people from history and fiction? Is this the greatest idea for a book ever? Yes. Yes it is. Come join the best dinner party in history (and books), full of pirates, sandwiches and history's greatest figures!"—James Riley, New York Times bestselling author of The Story Thieves series

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728230504
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	07/06/2021
Series:	Time Villains , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	475,157
Lexile:	700L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Victor Piñeiro heads up content and social media at an ad agency where he’s run @YouTube, some of @Google and launched @Skittles, creating its award-winning zany voice. He’s also designed games and toys for Hasbro, written/produced a popular documentary on virtual worlds and taught third graders. He is the author of the Time Villains series.

Editorial Reviews

05/24/2021

A notorious historical villain overstays his welcome after three Maryland students inadvertently summon him to a dinner party in this engaging fantasy series opener. Every year at Finistere, “a full-on, spires-and-everything medieval castle turned into a school,” students must complete the same dinner party assignment: “If you could invite any three people, living or dead, who would you invite?” This year, 12-year-old Javi Santiago, who is Puerto Rican and an aspiring chef, isn’t sure whom to include, so he recruits his bookish best friend Will “Wiki” Green to help choose the perfect guests. But when Javi, his younger sister Brady, and Wiki accidentally wield a magic table’s summoning powers and let a cartoonishly rendered pirate Blackbeard loose in their world, they must race to send him back before he can enact his evil plans. Confident third grader Brady (“Now find yourself another Pirate Queen, ya scurvy dog!”) steals scenes—and Blackbeard’s respect. Great for fans of Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, debut author Piñeiro’s writing offers plenty of humor, as well as clever historical and literary Easter eggs for readers to puzzle out. Includes a character guide. Ages 8–12. Agent: Elana Roth Parker, Laura Dail Literary. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Piñeiro scores with this tale of friendship, magic, and adventure... Magnificent. " — Kirkus Reviews, STARRED Review

"Piñeiro incorporates the characters’ ethnic backgrounds...creatively and authentically into the story...The historical and literary figures who appear around the table and in the classroom include both classics...readers will appreciate the back matter with information about each." — Horn Book Magazine

"It’s got heart, it’s got thrills, it’s got pirates! You won't be able to put down this action-packed, relentlessly funny adventure." — Sarah Mlynowski, author of the New York Times bestselling Whatever After series

"The novel is rich with the family's Puerto Rican traditions... [and] the many clever references to literature and history (Does the name Edward Teach ring a bell?) may inspire kids to further reading." — Jean Westmoore, The Buffalo News

"Great for fans of Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, debut author Piñeiro’s writing offers plenty of humor, as well as clever historical and literary Easter eggs for readers to puzzle out." — Publishers Weekly

"I recommend this book to fantasy lovers, people who like a little mystery, and children who love history. This book was truly amazing. I can’t wait to read it again!" — Ania, Age 10 (Kids Book Buzz)

"A magical table that pulls in famous people from history and fiction? Is this the greatest idea for a book ever? Yes. Yes it is. Come join the best dinner party in history (and books), full of pirates, sandwiches and history's greatest figures!" — James Riley, New York Times bestselling author of The Story Thieves series

From the Publisher

07/01/2021

Gr 4–6—Puerto Rican siblings Javi and Brady along with their friend Wiki have discovered a purring table. Well, it does more than purr. Andy, as they nickname him, can bring people from the past for a dinner party. Super cool for a school assignment that asks which three people would you invite from history for a dinner party. Not so cool when one of the guests you invite is Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard the Pirate, and he escapes into your world. Now Javi, Brady, and Wiki aren't sleeping and aren't concentrating at school (by the way, what is up with the ancient castle they go to school in and the teachers who seem a little too much like some people they have read about?) because they are worried they are going to be killed by Blackbeard if they don't use Andy to bring his crew to this world. It appears that all is lost, but when past fabled and famous people join together and combine with stories from Wiki's Haitian family, defeat is impossible. The informal writing style and vocabulary try to capture the narrative voice of tween Javi, but the writing ends up being stilted and sometimes the plot feels awkward, with abrupt ends of events or giving readers déjà vu by repeating certain circumstances. This book combines the many myths of Edward Teach and the glorified stereotype of pirates in an attempt to create an engaging tale, but the humor falls flat. A short appendix includes accurate historical or literary biographies of each of the people encountered in the novel yet the portrayals of a number of them in the actual story contradict the facts given for them. The concept of having historical and literary figures visiting the modern world might strike the funny bone of some readers, but the inconsistent way they are incorporated into the modern world takes some of the fun out. VERDICT Though this has great potential as a story and is a wonderful concept, the execution of the plot and the portrayal of the characters does not recommend it for purchase.—Clare A. Dombrowski, Amesbury P.L., MA

School Library Journal

★ 2021-05-19
Historical guests come to dinner and chaos ensues in this uproarious debut.

Twelve-year-old Javier Santiago’s not doing so well at Finistere, his slightly cool, slightly weird semi-castle of a school in suburban Maryland. He’s at risk of failing sixth grade and falling behind his brainiac, history-obsessed best friend, Wiki. Then comes the annual all-school project: invite three guests, living or dead, to dinner, then write an essay. For a budding chef like Javi, that’s a piece of cake. Trouble arises when Javi uses his family’s magical antique dining room table to accidentally pull his guests into the present day, including the infamous Blackbeard, who escapes before he can be sent back in time. Blackbeard wants to use the table to summon his fearsome crew and enact his plans to take over the modern world. Worse yet, the dreadful pirate is hilariously popping up all over Finistere, working as the school groundskeeper to ensure the success of his sinister plans. With the help of Brady, Javi’s tough-as-nails younger sister, the boys work to take down Blackbeard while uncovering the school’s mysterious secrets. Featuring a diverse cast led by the Puerto Rican siblings and Haitian American Wiki, grand doses of humor, and an irreverent take on some of history’s well-known figures, Piñeiro's book scores with this tale of friendship, magic, and adventure. A breakneck pace and Javi’s colorful narration hold things together as the thrilling zaniness piles up.

Magnificent. (list of characters) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews