Time Lions and the Chrono-Loop – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Time Travel, heritage, historical importance.
Children’s book title: Time Lions and the Chrono-Loop.
Children’s authors: Martin Seneviratne and Krystal Sutherland.
Genre: Children’s fiction.
Published by: Piccadilly Press.
ISBN: 9781800785229.
Recommended for children aged: 9+ year-olds.
First published: Paperback October 2025.
This children’s book is ideal for: beginning discussions about what history can teach us and how our heritage helps define us.
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Our review:
Pearl Amarasinghe and her twin brother, Patrick, could both be accurately described as geniuses, or they would be if they didn’t keep their super intelligence to themselves. Rather than letting any of their peers know anything about them, they instead use their abilities to undertake secret assignments which help Pearl with her scientific and engineering projects while Patrick helps by using his encyclopaedic historical knowledge along the way.
Pearl’s latest invention, which has meant they’ve had to acquire some rather specialised items, is a time machine, and they have no idea how many problems that is going to cause! Travelling back to the time of the pharaohs results in them changing the timeline so seriously that the whole future from then on is altered. When they come into contact with TIME, they discover it is an organisation tasked with returning the timeline to how it should be, with all its imperfections and disasters.
Not everyone wants to return to this preferred reality, however, and the twins find themselves whisked away to a reality where the darker parts of the planet’s history just didn’t happen! Finally, realising the dangers associated with time travel can have far-reaching consequences, the twins have to work together to try, one last time, to change everything for the better.
Our verdict:
Time Lions and the Chrono-Loop is just a brilliant book, exciting and informative with an entertaining storyline pretty much guaranteed to pique the interest of even the most reluctant readers in this age range. There are serious points considered here but they are woven into a fast-moving, thrilling, and, despite its subject matter, relatable storyline. The time travel is concentrated on the past; there’s no getting next week’s lottery numbers here, detailing what life could be like if we ever had the chance to change things.
Pearl and her brother learn a lot about themselves and each other as the story progresses, including how they relate to authority, their peers, and their Sri Lankan heritage, all of which was sensitively handled. The way in which history is changed, including the long-term effects, and the organisation set up to counteract them, are pure science fiction (or are they?), but the personal battles both children work through will be recognisable to many readers and the positive outcomes are encouraging and well handled.
This is the first book in a new series and some details of their second adventure are woven in towards the end. This is, in my opinion, going to be a very successful and anticipated set of novels for middle-grade readers.
Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:
- How exciting would it be to be able to time travel? Would you prefer to travel backwards or forwards in time?
- Pearl inadvertently changes everything by squishing a mosquito. What other ways could they have altered everything?
- If you could travel to any time period, would it be to meet a certain historical figure or to experience a certain event?
- How surprised were you that Pearl and Patrick’s mother was far more aware and accepting of their activities than the twins thought? How do you think most parents would react?
Many thanks to Piccadilly Press for the review copy.
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