It's odd how the children in books are quite often techno-geeks, or science geeks, or sports mad, or even, in a few cases, artistic. They're hardly ever history geeks and books are hardly ever written for history geek kids. This book might well be the exception. Maria has a natural talent for historical investigation: she's got empathy AND as a taste for research. It's all a bit uncontrolled at this stage especially when her hypotheses about what happened in the past get out of hand. And yet, even as an adult historian, I can relate to what she's doing. A Stitch in Time has more attention to sensitivity and detail than to page-turning melodrama but if a child is a real history geek they'll probably be so delighted to find themselves reflected from the pages it will grip anyway. I have a history geek child so perhaps I'll update this review if I find out what she thinks.
