Black Powder

By Staton Rabin

Book Overview

South Central
Los Angeles, 2010
Fourteen-year-old Langston Davis's best friend, Neely, has been shot and killed in a gang fight. Langston wishes that he could turn back the clock. But he knows you can't change history. Or can you?
When his science teacher invents a century-hopping time machine, Langston knows exactly what he must do: go back in time to stop the invention of gunpowder...which will prevent the invention of guns...which will stop Neely from getting killed.
Hijacking the time machine, Langston leaves a holographic "twin" of himself at home and bounces back to Oxford, England, in 1278, where he's in a race against time to stop the scientific "wizard" Professor Roger Bacon from sharing his new invention -- the Western world's first form of gunpowder. When Dr. Bacon is kidnapped by his archenemy, it's up to Langston and his new friend, Niles, to try to rescue him and destroy the formula for gunpowder. But is changing history really saving the world? Or is it just standing in the way of progress? Can Langston accomplish his mission and bring Neely back to life before he gets stuck in the thirteenth century forever? No matter how you look at it, it's going to be one heck of a ride through the dangereous hairpin turns of history and back to the future again!

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0689868766
• ISBN13: 9780689868764
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 7 to 12

Customer Reviews

Black Powder

My twelve and ten year old sons and I loved this book. It is a fast paced historical fiction / adventure / suspense story that had them on the edge of their seats. It has everything boys could want in a book: Action, science fiction, drama, suspense, and humor. It also taught them quite a bit about the origins of gunpowder, historical figures like Dr Robert Bacon, and the living conditions of people and street children in 13th century England.