After ruining her oral presentation at school, Lucy has lost her confidence. She wishes that a Wise One would come to help her complete her newest school project, researching five great artists of the past. Wilbur, a little Corgi dog, whisks her away to the past to visit the artists themselves and see them paint. But Lucy is worried that Wilbur is getting sick during their journey, and the worse he gets, his connection to the Crystal Navigator causes them to veer off course. Unless Lucy can heal Wilbur and repair the Navigator, they could be lost in the past forever.

I liked the main ideas behind this story; the time travel, the artists, the mystical crystals, the way that Lucy's thoughts can create their own powerful magic. There is lots of potential in this story, but the writing style is very dry. There are numerous grammatical errors, punctuation and capitalization errors, and that made it difficult to read. The spelling is decent though, so I'm grateful for small blessings.

I would think that a book about time travel would take the trouble to be historically accurate, but this book barely even tries. One of the major plot points is that there is "banana pudding" in fifteenth-century Florence, Italy.
Seriously? What Americans think of as "pudding" (a type of custard dessert) wasn't even invented until about 1840. And you know they weren't serving the Southern-American classic Banana Pudding back in Renaissance Italy. Banana Pudding is practically sacred in the Deep South, so how do you think they managed to get Nilla Wafers in downtown Florence back in the old days? Because I KNOW you weren't trying to make it without the Nillas! That's just wrong! (I'm from Georgia, and I know what I'm talking about here.)

When Lucy and Wilbur travel back to old Italy, they can understand every person they meet, without needed to translate. That's fine, because I figured, it's the magic of the Crystal Navigator that causes them to understand languages. All part of the fantasy. All part of the magic.
But then, they meet Hannibal crossing the Alps, and suddenly Lucy can't understand what he is saying, and needs Wilbur to translate. Did I miss something here? Suddenly, the magic is gone? Then it comes back again in the next scene? Inconsistent magic systems are one of my pet peeves. If you're going to create a world with magic, make it consistent. It has to make sense in every scene.

There were many times when the writing was confusing, and did not explain things satisfactorily. For instance, at most places that Lucy and Wilbur visit, Wilbur sits down in a corner with a book to read. The books all have cutesy titles. But it is never explained WHERE he gets the book from. Did he get the book from the artist's library? Did he find it on the floor? Did he pull it out of his magic pockets? Why isn't that explained? Maybe it's supposed to be mysterious or something, I don't know.

One time when Wilbur is thrown into jail, Lucy comes to rescue him, and he says something like, "Can we wait a minute? I just ordered tea." Is that a joke? Did he actually order tea? He's a dog, so how did he order tea, when he has been pretending to be a normal pet? Who would take an order of tea from a talking dog in Renaissance Italy? I DON'T KNOW! This is idiotic. Why is this never explained?


The plot is really obvious. The characters are flat. I'm disappointed in this book. Lazy writing.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.