Books > Betsy Ross's Star >

Excerpts

PROLOGUE

TIME TRAVEL

If you said to me, "Hey, Abigail! What's your favorite thing in the whole world?" I would have to answer, "History Club."

History Club is way better than art projects. Better than mini golf. Even better than eating pizza with sausage and extra cheese.

After school on Mondays, our third-grade social studies teacher, Mr. Caruthers, sends three of my friends and me on a mission back in time. Jacob, his twin brother Zack, Bo, and I call our top secret time-travel adventures "History Club."

And our teacher, Mr. Caruthers, is so super cool, we call him "Mr. C." One day a woman named Babs Magee stole a time-travel computer that Mr. C invented in his laboratory under the school gym. Now she's popping around history, visiting important people on a list of names that Mr. C made.

Babs Magee wants to be famous. But she doesn't want to work for it. She'd rather steal other people's inventions or ideas.

It's a lame way to get famous. When Mr. C discovered what Babs Magee was doing, he knew he needed to keep history straight. Since he is too busy working on a new invention, he asked Bo, Jacob, Zack, and me to help him out. It's our job to go back in time and convince those famous Americans not to give up their dreams.

Mr. C gave us a brand-new time-travel computer. It looks like a hand-held video game with a larger screen and extra buttons. When we put a special cartridge in the back, a glowing green hole opens and we jump through time. Taking the cartridge out brings us home again.

We have two hours to get the task done. So far we've been really lucky. On all our adventures, Jacob, Zack, Bo, and I have managed to keep history on track. We've foiled Babs Magee's schemes, and landed back at school with seconds to spare.

Today is Monday. I can hardly wait for school to end and History Club to begin.

Text copyright © 2007 by Stacia Deutsch and Rhody Cohon