Book Title: Two Times a Traitor
Author: Karen Bass
Category: Time-slip Adventure
Age Group: 9+
Part of a Series? No.
It's 2017, and Lazare Berenger is not on good terms with his father.
Laz is on a family trip to Boston, going on a guided tour of the Citadel with his parents and sister. Before the tour begins, he gets in a heated argument with his father and runs off into the Citadel alone.
While exploring a strange cave within the Citadel, the St. Christopher's medal he is wearing suddenly becomes hot, and he inexplicably blacks out. When Laz wakes up, he's taken prisoner by English colonists, who are convinced that he is a French spy. At first, Laz thinks it's all a game—something his father must have cooked up. Not funny, Dad.
It doesn't take long for Laz to realize that he has somehow slipped through time and managed to land himself in a huge pile of trouble. Welcome to 1745, Lazare Berenger.
All Laz wants is to go home. Sure, he might not be getting along great with his father, but at least his dad wouldn't put him in irons for a crime he didn't commit.
Laz believes that his key home is his St. Christopher's medal, which Captain Hawkins has taken from him. He's aboard a ship, in chains, and deprived of his ticket back to the present. Captain Hawkins obviously has the upper hand, and well he knows it.
Since the English are currently at war with the French and preparing to attack Louisbourg, it is decided that Laz can earn back his medal by infiltrating Louisbourg as a spy. Hawkins calls his medal a"surety," a guarantee that Laz will do as he is told.
Things get even more complicated when Laz successfully enters Louisbourg. A man named Commander Morpain takes Laz under his wing, and it isn't long until Laz is good friends with the commander. Soon he wonders how he could ever betray this man he now calls a friend. Laz is torn and unsure what to do. Can he really betray Commander Morpain and the entire town of Louisbourg? Read Two Times a Traitor to find out what course of action Laz decides to take.
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I really enjoyed Two Times a Traitor. It was filled with adventure, excitement, and hard decisions. I'm fairly certain that I could count on one hand the number of time-slip stories I've read, so it's not a genre that I dip into much. Regardless, I loved this book! Two Times a Traitor reminds me of Philip Roy's Submarine Outlaw series. The Submarine Outlaw books are not time-slip adventures like Two Times a Traitor, but they still have a similar feel.
Overall, I really liked Two Times a Traitor. The only things I really picked out that I didn't love were the one instance in which Laz swears, and a few typos and missing (or incorrect) bits of punctuation. I can get over one or two swears in a book, although I wouldn't typically read books filled with them.
As for the typos etc., I still think that the book is worth reading. Honestly, most people would simply gloss over the fact that there's a period instead of a question mark. I'm a writer, remember? I see these things because I'm constantly picking over my work to catch similar mistakes. It is very difficult to keep my editor eyes from transferring over onto writing that's not my own. Another edit of the book would certainly improve the reading experience for people with "editor eyes," but aside from that, the book is fairly well-written. I very much recommend reading Two Times a Traitor.