The Doomsday Vault (Everwhen School of Time Travel (and Other ODD Sciences)) by Thomas Wheeler

What worked:

The author’s idea for the special school is quite innovative. Students are chosen from throughout history so they won’t be handicapped by the schools of their times. The school in this book is called Everwhen and it’s actually a time machine! New students at a school usually ask where other students are from but the students in this book ask each other when they are from. Bertie’s dormitory is in 1330 Serbia while his two new friends, Millie and Zoe, share a room in twenty-second-century Paris.

Bertie, Millie, and Zoe offer different internal conflicts and alternating chapters focus on each of them. Bertie doesn’t understand why he’s been invited to the school since he was never a great student in the 1800s. Being ranked last out of all the Everwhen students reinforces that doubt. Millie’s brother is Leonardo Da Vinci so she’s tired of living in his shadow. She has imaginative ideas that don’t receive much attention but loves the opportunities offered at Everwhen. Zoe promised her dying mother that she’d work hard to be the best so she feels pressure to outdo everyone. A second-place ranking impels her to make a rash decision with drastic consequences and her character will offer many surprises.

The plot becomes a mystery of sorts as Bertie leads the effort to uncover secrets. The Haunted Formula is the first major question. It appeared one day on a whiteboard but no one knows who wrote it, or why. A curse is attached to the formula so many fear the consequences of solving it. Other people view it as a challenge. Then, a message appears on the wall of the dean’s office saying they must open the Doomsday Vault. Teachers and students don’t know much about but its name clearly indicates it’s bad.  Add to all of this the disappearance of the dean, Zoe, and others and the author has created a wonderful mystery to solve!

What didn’t work as well:

Time travel is always tricky in books because it can create paradoxes and open very imaginative situations. The fact that the school is a giant time machine leads to some confusion as the setting and time can change immediately when characters move around the facility. It presents a challenge when trying to form mental pictures of what’s happening.

The final verdict:

The story is a wonderfully, imaginative adventure. At the crux of the conflict is a question: What’s wrong with taking advancements from the future to resolve problems in the past?  Some parts of the plot may be challenging to follow but heart-warming events await as it nears the climax. I recommend you give this book a shot.