Review of The Missing Series #1-4 by Margaret Peterson Haddix

         Recently, I have been reading The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I am currently reading the fifth book in the series Caught however, this post will be reviewing books one through four in the series. Key note: It is important to read the author's notes at the end of each book because Haddix explains the accurate information of each historical event discussed within each book. It took a lot of research to write a fictional book with this much historical content.

Found

        This book was an instant page turner. It has the FBI, a vanishing plane, bad guys, and time travelers.  Jonah, Chip, and Katherine are the main characters of the novel they work together to solve multiple mysteries throughout the novel. They seem to find more questions than answers throughout the book but by the end of the novel they have learned:Time Travel is possible; Chip and Jonah are adopted and they appeared out of no where on a plane 13 years ago with 36 other children (subsequently ruining Angela DuPre's life); and Chip and Jonah as well as the other children that appeared are missing children from history. Thus, giving us a wonderful idea for a series. 

Sent

               To say that I really enjoyed Sent is a understatement. I sorta bought the book and finished it the same day. Which is a wonderful example of why I am broke because of books. Sent is set in the London of 1483 Jonah, Katherine, Chip and their new friend Alex face many difficulties.  This is the time period that Chip and Alex belong to. They happen to be the missing princes from the Tower of London! The whole situation is tricky when you realize that the characters have not had any time traveling experience, the original Chip and Alex are murdered in 1483, and one wrong move by Jonah or Katherine could ruin time for ever! (That last one seems to be a recurring theme in the missing series. No matter how much knowledge on time traveling they have one wrong move could ruin the rest of time! As you read the book after many mistakes and challenges the amateur time travelers successfully save time and are able to return Chip and Alex to their adoptive parents in the 21st century. Proving a fellow time traveler, JB, wrong allowing him to agree to taking back each of the 36 children to attempt to save time and successfully return the children to their adoptive parents in the 21st century. 

Sabotaged and Torn

             I am reviewing books three and four together because they have been the least interesting out of the series. In Sabotaged, Jonah, Katherine, a dog named Dare, and another missing child named Andrea go into the Lost Colony of Roanoke because Andrea is actually Virginia Dare. As they are traveling through time their elucidator(a time traveler's must have device) is lost and they don't know exactly what year they are in this time around. It turns out that they have been sabotaged by JB's time projectionist who now goes by the name Second Chance because he is changing history with second chances. This sabotage is huge and causes another book to be written just so they could solve all of mysteries.  This is also why Torn(#4) is my least favorite of the series so far. In Torn, Jonah and Katherine are sent to the year 1611 where they are apart of Henry Hudson's ship. Katherine is invisible the entire book and Jonah is forced to take on the persona of Henry Hudson's son, John Hudson! Second is actually also in a costume pretending to be another person on the ship. Jonah and Katherine do not actually figure this out until halfway through the book. In my opinion both of these books seemed to drag on and on. I did enjoy the fact that in Torn time is reversed letting Jonah and Katherine make new choices throughout the day to see if they can save their friends in the Roanoke Colony. This was a neat element to the book that I liked. Eventually, Jonah and Katherine save their friends in the Colony and for the moment everything is good.

However, this does not last for long...

               When Second allowed Jonah and Katherine to make different decisions than before he split time damaging it. He created damaged time meaning that no one should be traveling through time until they realize that time could be harmed even worse if Jonah and Katherine do not go back to save it! In book five which I will review next Jonah and Katherine are sent to the 1900's when JB goes missing. They have to successfully return Albert Einstein's daughter back to the 21st century! 

                                                  Until next time, Emmy.