Frozen In Time by Ali Sparkes (From Swindon Advertiser)

Frozen In Time by Ali Sparkes

4:07pm Wednesday 18th February 2009 in

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WHEN author Ali Sparkes visited primary schools in Swindon last year she told the youngsters that she didn’t write for exclusively for children but for “Chadults” - a combination of children and adults.

So it was with this in mind that I picked up a copy of her latest novel, Frozen In Time.

I will happily hold my hands up and say that I am a big fan of the Harry Potter series and after tackling a string of quite heavy and demanding books the chance of picking up something that should be a fairly stress-free read appealed to me.

The book is set in 2009 and teenagers Ben and Rachel are bored on their school holidays. Their parents are off performing on a cruise ship and their uncle Jerome, who is looking after them, spends most of his time up in his science lab. The TV is broken, the radio has run out of batteries and it’s raining. It’s a child’s worst nightmare.

Finally there is a break in the weather and they decide to go and play in the woods out the back of the house - where they stumble across an underground laboratory.

Inside they discover two green pods with what look like dead bodies inside - after accidently pressing a button the pods begin to open and out come Freddy and Polly - who have been in cryonic suspension since 1956.

The story centres around the disappearance of Freddy and Polly’s dad and why he left them ‘frozen in time’ and the quartet’s attempts - along with Uncle Jerome, to uncover the secret.

Did he defect to the Russians during the Cold War? Was he kidnapped? Or was he murdered? While trying to solve the mystery Ben and Rachel also have the enormous task of introducing the 1950s pair to life in the noughties.

Microwave meals, traffic jams, piercings and changes in languages are all issues they have to deal with. Along with the worry of what being suspended in time for more than 50 years will have on the brother and sister.

It’s an adventure-packed read and feels very much like a Famous Five for a new generation. Whether you are reading it to your children, watching them enjoy getting lost in a good book or delving into it yourself, the plot keeps you gripped every step of the way and is challenging enough for an adult to read while still being accessible to a younger audience.

As Freddy and Polly would say, “it’s a romping good read”.