The Infinite
Patience Agbabi
Subjects
- Action Adventures - chills, thrills and plenty of spills
- Fantasy Worlds - awesome adventures of magic and mystery
'Vivid, funny, exciting and inventive' Philip Pullman 'Has a magic all of its own' Bernardine Evaristo 'What an inspiration. The future just got so much better' Benjamin Zephaniah FIGHT CRIME, ACROSS TIME! Leaplings, children born on the 29th of February, are very rare. Rarer still are Leaplings with The Gift - the ability to leap through time. Elle Bíbi-Imbelé Ifíè has The Gift, but she's never used it. Until now. On her twelfth birthday, Elle and her best friend Big Ben travel to the Time Squad Centre in 2048. Elle has received a mysterious warning from the future. Other Leaplings are disappearing in time - and not everyone at the centre can be trusted. Soon Elle's adventure becomes more than a race through time. It's a race against time. She must fight to save the world as she knows it - before it ceases to exist . . .
Reviews
Details TBC.
nadiamatthewsx3
Didn't enjoy this very much, although I'm told the pupils at school really enjoy it. I found it quite confusing! It was an interesting story - perhaps I should have read it a little slower.
MrsBarnes1986
A time travel story with a difference. Elle lives with her Nigerian Grandmother and is a leapling, born on 29th February with 'the gift' which enables her to leap through time. She attends a school for leaplings and gradually learns more about her gift and how she can use it for good. She and several other characters are neurodivergent and this is handled with sensitivity. This is also an exciting adventure story, with a message about environmental issues and how what we do today can impact upon the future.
Joyful
I liked the character of Elle and her grandmother. It was a fast-paced story with plenty to get you thinking! I think this story has something for everyone: how it feels to be autistic, eco/climate issues, time travel, friendship, sports and mystery all rolled into one.
edawkins
I loved the concept of this book of time travelling Leaplings. Central characters with autism and ADHD refreshing to read and using their different ways of thinking as super powers. Strong female lead with flaws also an added bonus.
Erinshinereads
Good enjoyable time travel plot but with more serious themes of bullying, identity and our relationship with nature.
HadassahD
I loved this unusual book about a time travelling Leapling (a person born on Feb 29th) called Elle. It's an adventure and time travelling mystery which moves at a fast pace. When Elle travels we see what the future will look like after changes have been made in response to climate change. This makes the book really relevant and thought provoking it would work so well as a class novel as it opens up lots of discussion. The central character is so likeable and realistic that I couldn't put it down!
liane76
What a fabulous book based on a really clever idea. I loved the characters, I loved the diversity and I can imagine members of my class reading this and seeing themselves in it. I will definitely be recommending it to them after half-term.
EmmaD
Infinites are people born on February 29th. They have special gifts including being able to leap in time. On a school trip to 2048, things don't go to plan and the Leapers find themselves involved in a search for a missing brother and some very odd meat.
KirstenF
Recommended for: KS2 and KS3, 9+ years I can definitely say that I have never read a novel like this! The Infinite is narrated by Elle Bibi-Imbele who is an exceptionally bright, autistic Leapling. A Leapling is a special individual born on the 29th February and some are even gifted with the powers to jump through time when they come of age. One particularly challenging day, Elle receives an ambiguous warning in the form of a text from the future but has no idea who is from, what it is about and how to help them. But she does know what year it is from - the year that she is just about to visit on a special school trip. The novel first struck me as a breath of fresh air. Elle’s narrative voice is clever, amusing and I loved seeing the world through her eyes. The people who surround her are equally as charming like her best friend Big Ben, who constantly asks her ‘Am I your boyfriend?’ and is searching of his nickname because his timing skills are imprecise. Apart from Pete LMS (Like My Status) who is mean and a bully. The premise of the story drew me in too as I had not read anything like it - a science-fiction story with a contemporary style. It is also appropriately challenging for KS2 and KS3 students because of the complicated, time-travel narrative which is a bonus. Even though I found the middle of the novel hard to get through because it felt like too many non-events were happening, I did appreciate the ending and glad I persevered. While the whole book promotes the idea of a social responsibility to be kind to our planet, there is an additional, lovely moral message about being kind to each other in the revelation. I am all about a book that promotes that message so I still think it is definitely worth a read and should be a staple in all libraries/children’s book collections. I think there are bigger and better things to come from Patience Agbabi if this novel is her starting point (aside from her retelling of Chaucer - Telling Tales) and I am excited to find out what!
Gchaggar