Panama Oxridge

Five years is a long time to wait for a sequel in the frantic world of modern children's publishing where most authors are expected to turn out at least one book a year, possibly even more. For example, when Darren Shan's new Zom-B series hits the book shops in 2012 the intention is to release one book every three months. Some of this is a financial thing - hook a child with a book, especially if it is written by a big name author, and they will come back for more. Make the time between releases too long and that child will have grown up another year or two and have moved on to the next big name author, the original story long forgotten. Panama Oxridge is not a big name author (although I believe he deserves to be), and so I hope that momentum can now be built and the two remaining books in the series will be released within a shorter period, giving these books the attention that they surely merit.

As you can probably tell already, my five year wait to read the sequel to The Tartan of Thyme was worth it. Admittedly it did take me a short while to get back into the story - I have read the original book several times, but time constraints these days mean that I was not able to refresh my memory prior to reading Thyme Running Out. By the end of the third chapter though, the characters of the family Thyme were like old friends, and as I progressed through the story there were enough references to the first book to have me feeling like I had only read it a couple of weeks ago.

Thyme Running Out picks up the story at a point soon after the close of its predecessor. The family are on a Mauritian island, ostensibly so that Lady Henny Thyme can make another of her world famous wildlife shows and establish a wildlife sanctuary. However, there is an ulterior motive to the trip: Justin is using his time machine to travel back in time to recover dodo egges with a view to bringing the species out of extinction and into the modern world. Not all is rosy though - friction is building between the increasingly rebellious Robyn Thyme and her mother, and Eliza, the tame, hyper-intelligent gorilla is becoming increasingly moody. Nanny Verity Kiss is still missing, presumed in hiding as she is still suspected of complicity in the kidnapping of Lady Henny.

Leaving Henny behind, the family return to Thyme Castle, and the mysteries that were set up in the first book begin to unfold again. Who is Agent X? Where is Nanny Verity Kiss? Is there a traitor living within Thyme Castle itself? So begins another richly layered mystery story laced with time travel adventure and humour, and yet again the stand out element of the story is its array of eccentric characters. Every one of them has a part to play in this story, even the minor ones who might only appear for a paragraph here and there in the story, and rarely is anyone exactly how they first appear.

Panama Oxridge never patronises his audience, nor does he relax his own obviously high standards of language and grammar in order to make the story an easier read. The vocabulary he uses throughout the book is occasionally complicated and the book is all the better for this. As Panama explained in an interview he did for The Book Zone last year: "Using interesting words is important to me.... Teachers often encourage their pupils to choose books that expand their vocabulary, but few young readers want to wade through a huge dictionary every time they happen upon an unfamiliar word. Therefore “Justin Thyme” briefly defines more than 450 of its most challenging words at the back of the book. This ensures no young reader need ever feel out of his or her depth." Thyme Running Out contains a similar mini-dictionary in the appendix, containing a few words that even this reader had to look up.

One of the unique points of this book are the clues that Panama hides throughout the story. If you have a 9 mystery loving son (or daughter) who is a confident reader but has read all the books by the big name authors and is looking for something fresh and different then I cannot recommend this series highly enough - my godson will be receiving a copy for Christmas this year. Both books are available in beautiful hardcover editions, with the first now also available in a paperback edition. All editions include Panama's own illustrations littered throughout the book, some of them also acting as clues to the denouement.… (mehr)

Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

I absolutely loved Justin Thyme. It was a roller-coaster of a story. It had adventure, mystery, humor, and fantasy. I especially loved the glossary and appendix which was at the end of the book. It had the definitions of the scientific words which were used but also defined the college prep words and the Scottish words that are bewitching to us U.S. readers. As a young reader I absolutely hated having to look up a word when I am in the midst of a good story. I was lucky and had a mother who would tell me definitions but a lot of teachers and parents think it is better to have the reader look up the word. Well, I wouldn't do that because then I would have to find the dictionary, look up the word, and hope that I would understand the definition. When I have the glossary in the back of the book I am more likely to look up the word. I also think it enables the writer to write better and not have to water down her/his story.

I also loved the play on words in the story. The main character is Justin Thyme: "just in time," get it!!! Ha Ha!!! His whole family is a play on the word time. Robyn Thyme is his older sister, his baby brother is Albion Thyme, his mother is Henny Thyme, his father is Willoughby Thyme, and his grandfather is Lyall Austin Thyme.

Justin's father is the Lord of Thyme Castle. He would be broke except that thirteen-year-old Justin invented an alarm system for cell phones. Justin is a genius and he is also the family wage-earner. Also at the castle live Verity Kiss, the nanny, Professor Gilbert, Justin's private tutor, Angus and Morag Gilliechattan, the married couple who are the gardener and the housekeeper. Elisa the gorilla also lives with them and is a talking gorilla! She adds a lot of humor. The Gilliechattan's also have a Shakespeare-loving parrot, and a cat with eight legs.

The story starts with Justin's thirteenth birthday. He receives a cool watch and can't figure out who gave it to him--but when his mother gets kidnapped the fun starts. In a moment of pure inspiration he invents a time machine, which gets involved with the kidnapping and the new hiring of castle staff. The non-studious Robyn and Justin start trying to solve the mystery and what a roller-coaster ride this becomes.

This is the first of the four in THE TARTAN OF THYME book series. I am counting the thyme until book two comes out because I loved this book so much. Also check out the web site. It is amazing!… (mehr)

I've just had wonderful day reading `Justin Thyme'. Not only is the lead character a bit of a play on words but so are the rest of his family. Ranging from Henny to Albion and Robyn the names are very clever. The plot revolves around a young boy is a self-made millionaire living in Scotland in a castle, the plan of which is provided on the first few pages. Justin's mother gets kidnapped, his father dramatically remembers events previously forgotten and all the staff from the castle has a role to play in this excellent children's novel.

Clues to the author's real identity are spattered throughout the novel as well as other clues to solve. Even as an adult I couldn't identify the true identity of Panama Oxbridge but I'm sure all will be revealed anyway as time goes on. This novel is the first in a series of four and I am sure I will not be alone in seeking out the other three - if only to find out who wrote them!

The actual website promoting the book is fabulous and well worth a visit, lots to do on there. As far as children's books go, this is great. It's funny, clever and intriguing; a great adventure from beginning to end. I could see elements of other children's adventurers in the name of Artemis Fowl and Alex Rider but I have to say I enjoyed this adventure more. It had the appeal of adult fiction in the way Harry Potter does.

I wish some adult thrillers/adventures would follow the ideas in `Justin Thyme' - once the crime has been solved the footnotes help you work out where the clues were in the novel. Something I could with in adult novels to be honest. The glossaries provided will be excellent for children as they would really help with some of the scientific terms let alone the Scottish dialect.

Apart from the main characters of the story there is Eliza the Gorilla (well actually she really is a main character) and Tybalt the cat which had an `incident' with a spider and now has eight legs! As well as these there is a parrot who quotes Shakespeare continually - fabulous! An endless treat for children with wonderful descriptions the like of which Roald Dahl could've written - the Professor, Butler and Cook are a delight. The ambigrams and illustrations help the novel become more visual for younger readers and make it entertaining for the older generations.

Throughout the book you are told to beware procrastination and I was amused to see this illustrated on the back cover through italics. Other hints and clues are evident and you have to make a decision at the end of the novel to either go straight back and try to find out who the author is amongst other puzzles or just accept in the words of the novel that `everything is connected to everything else'.

This novel really does have something on a different level for adults to identify than it does for children. There are hidden clues and puzzles to be solved that I couldn't identify but I'm sure I would if I were to read it again. To be honest I think I will beware procrastination and just enjoy it as an excellently well-written novel and wait patiently for the next instalment (if I can!).… (mehr)