Book Review of The Missing Magician (The Time-Jinx Twins, Book 2)
The Children’s Book Review
The Missing Magician (The Time-Jinx Twins, Book 2)
Written by Carol Fisher Saller
Ages: 8-12 | 295 Pages
Publisher: Duckweed Books (2026) | ISBN: 978-1-964301-03-7
What to Expect: Identical twins, time travel, 14th-century England, family secrets, historical adventure, diverse medieval culture, sisterhood, and high-stakes timeline puzzles.
In this thrilling sci-fi adventure, identical twins Ellie and Kat must secretly travel back to 1323 England to rescue their newly discovered future-cousin from a traumatic, timeline-altering event.
Fourteen-year-old twins Ellie and Kat are just beginning to settle into the normal, everyday drama of middle school when a strange boy named Ozzie appears on their doorstep with a shocking revelation: he is a time traveler from the year 2074, and they are cousins. Ozzie is desperate for their help to fix a heartbreaking event from his own past in medieval England. Because the twins’ brilliant physicist mother has recently upgraded her home-built time machine to reach back more than a thousand years, Ellie realizes they have a golden opportunity to right this historical wrong. Armed with futuristic translation ear-pieces and historical costumes printed in the future, the sisters embark on a daring, secret mission to 1323 Ackenbury.
Author Carol Fisher Saller delivers a well-structured and highly engaging narrative that perfectly captures the heart and humor of middle-grade fiction. The dual perspectives of athletic, impulsive Ellie and scholarly, analytical Kat create a wonderful contrast and highlight how their unique strengths make them a formidable team. Saller handles the mechanics of time travel with impressive clarity, establishing logical, stakes-raising rules—such as the prohibition of visiting a timeline where you already exist, and the reality that active communication drains precious real-time hours back home. The dialogue is lively and authentic, seamlessly blending contemporary teenage slang with translated medieval phrasing processed through their “interpreter” devices.
The Missing Magician is an outstanding, fast-paced adventure that beautifully balances lighthearted humor with genuine emotional depth, exploring the burdens of keeping secrets from those we love. It is a must-read for readers who enjoy time-travel mysteries, historical fiction, and stories about sisterhood and deep family bonds—especially anyone who loves clever historical world-building and strong, relatable protagonists.
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About the Author
Carol Fisher Saller is the author of Maddie’s Ghost, Eddie’s War, and The Bridge Dancers. Honors for her children’s books include Kirkus Best, Bank Street Best, Horn Book Recommended Verse, NCSS/CBC Notables, the Carl Sandburg Award for Children’s Literature, the Midland Authors Award for Children’s Fiction, and Chicago Public Library’s Best Teen Fiction. As a professional manuscript editor, Carol is the author of the book and blog The Subversive Copy Editor and contributing editor to The Chicago Manual of Style. She lives in Chicago.
