Three Against Time

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education and the author of The Private Journal
of Day Applepenny, Prisoner.

Three brothers on a family holiday in British Columbia’s Cariboo
Mountain region encounter more than fly-fishing and casual gold-panning
when they wander into an abandoned prospector’s cabin. Whisked back in
time, they land smack in the middle of the heady Gold Rush days of 1868.
Before they are called forward to play a heroic role in a 1995 rescue,
the three boys strike it rich in gold nuggets, foil the plans of a mean
and unscrupulous claim jumper, and experience a fire that devastates an
early mining town. All this and more takes place in 137 pages. To say
that this novel is adventure-packed is an understatement.

Although the transitions between past and present in the novel are
reasonably smooth and subtle, the introduction of the three main
characters is somewhat awkward. Each boy is described near the
beginning, in a manner reminiscent of inferior serial fiction. However,
the events that follow are revealing of character in themselves, making
the early narrative intrusion seem unnecessary. As well, some readers
may wonder why the young girl who falls into the old mine pit in the
first chapter is never revisited in her terror, at least not until the
dramatic deliverance scene in the final pages.

However, these minor shortcomings are somehow swept away by the
whirlwind action of the plot, which may have special appeal for
reluctant readers. Recommended.