Publisher's Weekly Review
The lighthearted title of British writer Welford's debut misleads a bit: this is a heavy story about loss that asks weighty scientific questions. Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhury, a British boy of Indian descent, receives two unusual gifts for his 12th birthday: a hamster and a letter from his late father, Pye (short for Pythagoras), who died suddenly four years earlier, devastating Al. The startling letter makes Al's friendless existence seem trivial: Pye wants Al to use a time machine hidden at the family's former home to avert the childhood injury that will eventually lead to his death at age 39. "Great birthday present, Dad," Al thinks before embarking on a risky mission that begins with vehicle theft and ends with arson. All the while, Welford has Al grapple with complex questions about the effects of altering the space-time continuum, including whether an unsuccessful mission might mean erasing himself. Though Welford's story runs a tad long and can get rather complicated (perhaps understandably given his approach to the theoretical subject), it should find a home with readers looking for mind-expanding, thought-provoking adventures. Ages 8-12. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In a time-travel tale that combines adventure with brain-bending cosmic and philosophical propositions, Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhury, 12, receives letters from his long-dead father that lead him to a homemade time machine and back to 1984 to prevent events that led to his dad's demise. This entails much guilty sneaking out at night and repeated trips back and forth in time as Al manages to leave both his hamster and his smartphone behind. Throughout, Welford gives him (and readers) much to mull over in epistolary disquisitions on the stranger aspects of Einsteinian space-time. At the heart of the tale is the antithetical pull between Al's simple desire to get his father back, and the views of his wise, beloved Punjabi grandpa Byron, who suggests that it is better to love the life one has while cherishing memories of the past. Indeed, memory plays a significant role here as a universal gift that becomes an everyday miracle. Sections set in the past do include period slurs one character remarks to Al that he has a touch of the tar brush, referencing his Indian ancestry but that shouldn't detract from the smart, engaging, and heartwarming aspects of this story. In the end, Al cleverly engineers a total win, and if that seems unlikely considering the hazards of meddling with the past, readers won't begrudge him.--Peters, John Copyright 2016 Booklist
