The Lost Track of Time

Penelope doesn’t see any sense in having a schedule every day. She’d rather fill her notebooks with exciting story concepts. Her parents, however, are more interested in ensuring Penelope’s acceptance to Ivy League schools. So Penelope sets out to publish an amazing story, and prove that writing isn’t a waste of time. Unfortunately, Penelope’s just developed an extreme case of writer’s block.

One day, Penelope falls into a hole in her schedule, and arrives in the magical Realm of Possibility, where the evil Chronos has decreed that everything he deems “impossible,” illegal. Suddenly, Penelope falls into a quest to find the Great Moodler, the only one who can save the Realm of Possibility and cure Penelope’s writer’s block.

While the book did have some interesting and original puns, it was too similar to Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth. For example, the quest to find the Great Moodler resembles Milo’s quest for the princesses of Rhyme and Reason. The similarities between Tollbooth’s “Which” on wasting words, and Chronos on wasting time, is evident. This book, with its many illustrations and large type/margins, would be best suited for readers who are not ready for Phantom Tollbooth, but find the same content interesting.