Straight Reading from the Library: A Pair of Docks by Jennifer Ellis

At The Library we love discovering good MG and YA books, and we were very excited to receive A PAIR OF DOCKS by Jennifer Ellis for review. Jennifer will be awarding a Print copy of A Pair of Docks to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US ONLY), and a Mobi or epub version of A Pair of Docks will be awarded to a randomly drawn commenter at each stop. Click on the tour banner and you can see the rest of the stops.

READ THE BLURB

Fourteen-year-old Abbey Sinclair likes to spend her afternoons in the physics lab learning about momentum and gravitational pull. But her practical scientific mind is put to the test when her older brother, Simon, discovers a mysterious path of stones that allows them, along with Abbey’s twin, Caleb, to travel back and forth between their world and what appears to be...the future.

Unfortunately, they’re not the only ones who know about the stones, and they soon realize their lives are in danger from a man known only as Mantis. Abbey, Caleb, and Simon must follow a twisting trail of clues that will lead them from their autistic neighbor, Mark, to a strange professor who claims to know the rules of the stones, and to multiple futures—some of whose inhabitants don’t want to stay put.

It will take all of Abbey’s analytical skills to unravel the secrets of the stones, uncover the threads that tie the futures together, thwart Mantis’s plan, and, most importantly, keep her family alive—now and in the future.

/A Pair of Docks/ explores Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, the meaning of time, the potential for parallel universes, and the boundary between science and witchcraft.

READ THE REVIEW

Let me say upfront that I stayed up nearly all night reading this book...yes, it's that good. I was swept up with the characters and their lives and could not put the book down until I had finished it.

The book is told from Abbey's perspective as she and her brothers discover some stones that have properties that she with all her scientific leaning cannot explain. As they are led to different futures, she has a hard time wrapping her mind around everything--because she is very much a girl who likes things cut and dried.

They meet some very interesting people along the way and discover a lot about themselves and their family. The characters just really came alive for me. I cannot wait until the second book in this series.

It reminds me a bit of A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeleine L'Engle. If you are fan of that book, definitely give this one a try.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Ellis is the author of A Pair of Docks, and In the Shadows of the Mosquito Constellation (forthcoming). She writes contemporary action-adventure fiction with a dystopic edge for both adults and children. She lives in a small ski town in Canada with her husband and two boys where she skis, does ballet, cooks, joins too many book clubs and works as environmental researcher. She blogs randomly but regularly at www.jenniferellis.ca and can be found on Twitter at @jenniferlellis. A Pair of Docks can be purchased on Amazon.com.