One If By Land, Two If By Submarine: A Middle Grade Time Travel Novel

I read books because their central concepts interest me.  One If By Land, Two If By Submarine by Eileen Schnabel isn't the first children's book that I've reviewed.  The most recent was Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes which I reviewed here.
I requested a free copy of Schnabel's historical science fiction novel from the publisher.

In the case of One If By Land, Two If By Submarine, I was interested in finding out why children would have been sent back in time to oppose an effort to prevent the American Revolution.  Schnabel does have a credible explanation based on her ideas about how time travel works.  So I thought my readers would want to know about this book.

                           

Initially, this novel reminded me of the TV time travel series, Timeless.  Yet the effort to change history in Timeless was much more extensive and didn't involve children.

When I started reading, I thought that  thirteen year old Kep Wearguard had been selected as the protagonist because he's an athlete who knows very little about history and needed to have everything explained to him.    Over the course of the narrative, I came to respect Kep.  He's courageous, loyal and resourceful.

The characters that immediately captured my interest were Kep's fellow time travelers, T.J. and Tela.   T. J. is a young African American who wonders if support for the American Revolution is extending slavery.  Tela is a vegan and an animal activist. I would love to see future books in the series that focus more centrally on T.J. or Tela.