Wonderful magical adventureSeptember 18, 2008 32 out of 32 found this review helpful
I bought this for a 10 year old prolific reader, who devours books faster than they can be published, because I saw that it was new in print. I read it before I gave it to him. It is wonderful - a fantastic, fabulous and magical adventure of a boy, Tom Scatterhorn, who becomes involved in an old, ramshackle, family-owned natural history museum. It quickly becomes apparent that there is more than meets the eye - the animals on display, created by a master taxidermist in the last century, can come alive. Tom finds a portal in the museum, which enables him to travel back and forth in time, between the modern day and the years in which the museum was created, and he becomes an apprentice to the master taxidermist. He finds out that the taxidermist has discovered an "elixir of life". But Tom isn't the only one travelling in time, and there are other, not-so-nice people looking for the rumoured elixir... It is beautifully written, and very exciting. Highly recommended, I'd say for 9 - 12 year olds. My 10 year old loved it, read it practically in one go, and wants to know when there will be more (it is called "Book 1"). I hope there will be more!
