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Timecatcher

by Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick (Goodreads Author)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 12 ratings · 2 reviews

Jessie Minahan and her mum stumble across the Dublin Button Factory in the grounds of the old mill just when they need to. It's the first in a series of strange discoveries for twelve-year-old Jessie. The Factory is a front for a detective agency, and hiding in the walls of the old building are ghosts - crotchetty Greenwood and the younger, mischievous G. G is a ghost, his...more

Hardcover, 128 pages

Published May 19th 2009 by Orion Children's Books (first published April 16th 2009)

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Oct 02, 2011 Judith rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: childrensfiction

Disclaimer—Marie-Louise is a dear friend and one of the loveliest people I know. She's been a picture book artist and writer for many years, and this is her first junior novel. I'm not even going to pretend to be unbiased—I loved this book and read it in one sitting on a rainy Sunday afternoon with my cats playing tag-team on my lap and a couple of small squares of home-made chocolate fudge to hand. Perfect reading conditions, in other words.

But friendship and personal admiration aside, I really...more Disclaimer—Marie-Louise is a dear friend and one of the loveliest people I know. She's been a picture book artist and writer for many years, and this is her first junior novel. I'm not even going to pretend to be unbiased—I loved this book and read it in one sitting on a rainy Sunday afternoon with my cats playing tag-team on my lap and a couple of small squares of home-made chocolate fudge to hand. Perfect reading conditions, in other words.

But friendship and personal admiration aside, I really did love this book. It's a classic adventure novel, with ghosts and a type of time travel, but also with a slightly darker contemporary edge. Set in the old mill building where Marie-Louise had her artist's studio for many years, it's the story of 12 year old Jessie, recently moved to Dublin after the death of her father, who stumbles across a bead factory with her dress-designer/maker mother. The bead factory turns out to be a front for a couple of private detectives, who are actually investigating paranormal activity in the building in the shape of a mysterious portal at the top of four steps that lead to a brick wall—and a couple of ghosts.

One of these ghosts is the enormous Greenwood, who was hanged on the site of the building in 1201 and has been trying ever since to solve the riddle of the Timecatcher (a kind of vortex behind the portal where time past continues on), which he accidentally opened before his death.

The other ghost is that of G, a boy about Jessie's age, who died in an accident in the abandoned mill building some forgotten years earlier. G can't remember who he was, which he puts down to the head injury sustained in the accident. G quite likes being a ghost, but is frustrated by his inability to leave the confines of the mill, and remains angry with the friends who left him to die.

Add to the mix the evil spirit of a man hanged alongside Greenwood who is determined to re-enter the Timecatcher and steal the source of its power, chuck in a bit of Viking mythology, a great big whack of Irish history, all in the hands of a writer with great control over her narrative (voice and rather complicated plot) and you end up with a terrifically fast-paced but also intellectually challenging plot for smart kid readers (and others). Enjoy. And think of my friend M-L!
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Apr 20, 2013 Katie Keeley added it

I loved reading this book and couldn't put it down. I was a bit sad when I had it finished

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May 17, 2013 Little Etoile rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: it-s-ok

May 13, 2013 Bibliophile rated it 3 of 5 stars

Apr 27, 2013 Anisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

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Mar 12, 2013 Small Review marked it as to-read

Shelves: ghosts, middle-grade, pages-100s

Mar 11, 2013 Charlotte added it

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Mar 04, 2013 Neenee marked it as to-read

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Dec 30, 2012 Iffa Liana marked it as to-read

Dec 09, 2012 Cindy Chung rated it 4 of 5 stars

Dec 20, 2012 Maisarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Dec 09, 2012 Jayhan rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Aug 13, 2012 Hallie rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Nov 07, 2011 Elena rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oct 25, 2011 Abigail marked it as to-read

Shelves: childrens-fantasy, childrens-fiction, childrens-irish

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Apr 08, 2011 Cat. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Nov 11, 2010 Lydia marked it as to-read

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About Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick

I’m a Dubliner living in Wicklow and I’ve been making picturebooks for over twenty years.

I like to use the picturebook form to explore emotions and observe the moments in our childhood that turn and shape us.

My first children’s novel, Timecatcher was published with Orion Publishers UK in May 2010 and my YA novel, Dark Warning, came out this January. Timecatcher is a ghost/adventure story set in...more

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