Alex and the Amazing Time Machine (review)

In the hands of fifth-grade genius Alex Trumble, a few mirrors, a laser pointer, and a souped-up iPod combine to become a portable time machine that allows its owner to traverse the space-time continuum. Good thing, too, because Alex is desperate to alter a past that has his brother kidnapped by henchmen from the future, his parents devastated, and his present self pursued by the bad guys who took his brother, who did so to prevent Alex from inventing the time machine at all. It's all a bit confusing, but suffice to say that two hundred years from now, a maniacal general has taken over the world and sent the only person that could stop him back to Alex's time, and Alex's time machine returns the man to the future where he defeats the general, making Alex a target for the general's revenge across the paths of time and space. Time-travel logic can be confusing, and Cohen lays it all on a bit thick here, brandishing contradictory theories and technical jargon with little contextualization and whole lot of vague, incongruous explanations to back it up. The threat, however, is real enough in the form of the brutish thugs chasing Alex, and the fifth-grader's ability to quickly assess the situation and act accordingly, often with astoundingly successful results, will make him a hero among certain readers. Hard sci-fi buffs will want to get their time-travel fix elsewhere, but readers who like their protagonists to have all the answers—even if those answers are a bit convenient—will enjoy finding an expert in Alex.