THE CURIOSITY CHRONICLES: TIME MACHINE TROUBLE, by Chris Ferrie, Byrne LaGinestra, Wade David Fairclough, Allison Steinfeld, Sourcebooks Explore, Sept. 2, 2025, Hardcover, $14.99 (ages 8 and up)
Three kids must use science to save the future in The Curiosity Chronicles: Time Machine Trouble, by Chris Ferrie, Byrne LaGinestra and Wade David Fairclough.
Battle the bad guys and save the world in this interactive science adventure for kids!
When you and your friends discover that the mysterious Novax corporation plans to use their new time machine to steal scientific discoveries of the past and use them for evil, you decide to race into the past to stop them. If you pick the right paths, you’ll protect the future of science. But if you don’t…there’s no telling what could happen!
In this interactive adventure, readers will determine how their story unfolds, testing hypotheses by choosing the actions they will take. Proving their science knowledge will move them forward, while wrong choices will lead them to dead ends where they learn about more about each scientific concept before turning back to test a new hypothesis. In this engaging and interactive format, readers will learn the theory and even practice the applications of concepts like density, relative motion, acceleration, optics, kinetic and potential energy, and more. —Synopsis provided by Sourcebooks Explore
The Curiosity Chronicles: Time Machine Trouble is a pick-your-quest adventure with a scientific twist. Like the series by a slightly different name, readers get to choose what direction the story takes. Prompts at the bottom of each page move the story forward, and multiple outcomes are possible. And a section at the end further explores scientific concepts from the adventure — like how things fall and optics — in further depth.
The Curiosity Chronicles: Time Machine Trouble is a clever way for kids to learn while having fun, and the setup of the book provides excitement as well as natural stopping points, making it accessible to readers if different levels.
The Curiosity Chronicles: Time Machine Trouble moves quickly and holds attention. It’s likely one that would be very popular in a school setting.
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