The Tinkerers, by Caroline Carlson, for Timeslip Tuesday

After another few horribly busy weeks, I have peaceful time for a time slip Tuesday review, and it is a good one--The Tinkerers, by Caroline Carlson (middle grade, Oct 7, 2025, Candlewick).  It is always a lovely thing to get a review copy of a new middle fantasy from a favorite author, and (if you are me) even more lovely to find it has time travel!

Peter's life in Stargazers Valley is one nestled in routines of helping his parents run their guesthouse, looking after/chasing after his younger siblings, drinking hot chocolate at the local cafe with his best friend Linnet, and looking up at the night sky lit up with Skeins of starstuff, beautiful and magical, telling the stories of the Spinner and the Weaver and the mischievous Jackanapes up in the stars to his little brother.  He's used to visitors, who are almost always there to climb the mountains or to investigate the starstuff that falls on them, and so when he meets a pair of older travelers on the road, pulling a cart heaped full of miscellany behind them, he is quick to direct them to the family's inn.  These tinkerers are researchers from the Imperial College, but they aren't like any Peter's ever met before, and they don't exactly become friendly with their colleagues already in residence....

There's a reason for this, carted along behind them on their way to the valley.  Starstuff can do magical, wonderous things, and so it is a tightly controlled substance that only a very few are allowed to manipulate and experiment with.  And no one is allowed by the Empress to make, say, a tinkered together device that can turn back time....When Peter figures out what the tinkerers have brought with them to the inn, he can't resist the temptation to fix small mistakes...no one notices, and life goes on, but better.  But then, when the biggest mistake of his life, made years ago, threatens his family, turning back time seems the only way out...

I started reading this (mostly) cozy fantasy back in May, but then life got messy, and I didn't want my enjoyment spoiled. So I started from the beginning again a few weeks ago, and did not in the least bit mind re-reading the first 200 pages. This is one for those who like fantasy with young protagonists who are realistically having concerns more germane to the young (which is why middle grade fantasy is better escapism than books for grown ups.) 

It is also for those who like stories that are rooted fast in a particular place (a very nice place in this case), and rooted in family and community, with likeable characters. It might seem too idyllic to swallow, but there are dark threads of a dangerously oppressive government woven into the story.  There are hints of this early, given in the way the story is told--mostly we are reading an account Peter is giving to the government, but sometimes we are reading notes from surveillance cameras, which is disquieting.  Possibly these dystopian threads could have been pulled at harder (Peter is not by nature one to instinctively fight against the status quo, unlike his friend Linnet, an artist who is furious her picture of the Empress as a many-headed monster is not given a green light), but the tension gives a spice to the story, and becomes important to the larger plot.

In any event, I am very grateful to Caroline Carlson for writing a book that is just right for me, and to Candlewick for realizing this and thoughtfully sending it my way.   I will probably buy my own hardcover and reread it every five years or so (now I've done the first read, it has become one I can read when stressed since I know what happens....).