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93 pages 3 hours read

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Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008

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Important Quotes

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“He knew it was just a prank—it had to be—but for just a second, staring at those words, You are one of the missing, he’d almost believed them. Especially since he’d just been telling Chip about being adopted…What if somebody really was missing him? He didn’t know anything about his birth parents; all the adoption records had been sealed.”


(Chapter 2, Page 22)

Jonah thinks this after receiving the first strange note that identifies him as a missing child. He does not know it, but these lines are a call to action. Strange circumstances surround Jonah’s adoption, and he will need to face them. This is the first hint that his past is different from what he has always believed.

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“What I meant to say is, that doesn’t matter either. If you’re going through some adolescent ‘Who am I?’ phase, it’s not because you’re adopted. Everyone goes through that. I don’t know who I am either.” 


(Chapter 6, Page 54)

Katherine says this right before Jonah receives the second strange note. He has spent the last few chapters upset. He feels for Chip, who learned about his own adoption, and now Jonah is wondering where he came from, something he has never given much thought before. This is not the first appearance of the theme “Who am I?”, but Katherine’s admission introduces the idea that all kids feel confused, not only those who were adopted. Katherine questions who she will become, and Jonah wonders who he is. Their dichotomy mirrors the choice Jonah and the other missing kids must make at the story’s end: live in the past or the future.

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“He studied so hard that, second period, the test was a breeze. He filled in the meaningless words—Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo sapiens, Neanderthal—with great relief. These, at least, were questions he could answer.” 


(Chapter 7 , Pages 59-60)

These are Jonah’s thoughts after receiving the second letter. He has more questions than answers in his life, so knowing the correct responses to the quiz fills him with relief. The focus on history here foreshadows that Jonah comes from the past.

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“Jonah didn’t care about Katherine’s big identity crisis—cheerleader versus basketball player?—but, he reflected, she certainly had the lungs of a cheerleader.

And it was such a relief to think that, to think about something ordinary and pointless and annoying, like Katherine.” 


(Chapter 7 , Page 65)

Jonah thinks this after Chip receives his second strange letter in the mail. In all the fear and uncertainty, Jonah recognizes the simple joy in thinking his sister is annoying. Jonah begins to shift away from being unconcerned. He acknowledges how much he is worried lately and how that is different from his normal thoughts. This also shows that he has not yet started to change how he thinks of Katherine.

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“It doesn’t matter, Jonah told himself. I don’t care. But that wasn’t true. The room seemed to whirl around him—the room full of lies, Mr. Reardon’s lying words, Jonah’s lying thoughts.” 


(Chapter 9, Page 85)

This passage comes during the meeting between Jonah’s family and James Reardon. Reardon refuses to provide Jonah with information, leaving Jonah to assume the worst. Jonah never wondered where he came from, which has now changed: He suddenly wants to know who he is, even if he might not like the answer. 

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“He felt overwhelmed suddenly, everything catching up with him at once: the strange letters, Mr. Reardon implying he could lose his citizenship and be deported, Katherine claiming she’d seen a ghost, and now these lists of witnesses and survivors—with Jonah’s name right there in black and white. It made everything else seem like it might be real.” 


(Chapter 13, Page 110)

Jonah thinks this after he sees his name on the survivors list from Reardon’s office, hinting that Jonah’s adoption is not what it seems. This is a turning point: Jonah cannot ignore the evidence that something strange is going on. He needs answers, but he does not want them. He uses his fear to back out of the investigation and pretend he does not care. However, he cannot revert to ignorance. 

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“They were at the front door now. Jonah put his hand on the doorknob. Home, which had looked like such a safe place before, was now just a place where he might see ghosts, where he had to worry about his secrets being pulled out for anyone to see, where he had to worry about Mom and Dad worrying about him. He already felt haunted.” 


(Chapter 14, Page 126)

Jonah and Katherine arrive home from Chip’s house after the three looked over the survivors and witnesses lists. Jonah’s world shifts, and he realizes how much he appreciated his good life and loving family, even if he was not born into them. The things Jonah took for granted are not so reliable anymore. Things are not what they seem, and Jonah wishes they were. He is moving from his initial unconcerned persona into worrying.

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“Can I tell you something? Even before I found out I was adopted, even before I knew Mom and Dad weren’t really my parents—biological parents, I mean—I always felt like there was something wrong with me. Something different. Like I wasn’t who I was supposed to be. Like I never belonged. Not here. Not back in Winnetka. Not anywhere. […] And it seems like, this whole adoption thing, maybe that’s my answer. Maybe once I find out everything and get an explanation, then I’ll know.”


(Chapter 15 , Pages 135-136)

These lines call upon the book’s major themes of “Who am I?” and newfound truths versus long-standing beliefs. Chip has always felt out of place. Nothing in his life seemed right, and he is coming to find his misplaced feelings are based in reality. More than ever, Chip wants to learn who he is because he does not feel like Chip Winston is his true identity.

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“I didn’t know what I was promising, Jonah wanted to argue. That was last week. I thought I’d just have to quote from What to Tell Your Adopted and Foster Children. Not solve mysteries. Not see ghosts. Not call strangers. Not figure out the FBI. Not…worry about my own past.”


(Chapter 16 , Page 144)

Jonah thinks this in response to Chip’s reminder that Jonah promised he would do everything he could to help. When Jonah made that promise, he thought he knew how the world worked and what he was promising. Now, Jonah is not sure what to think. His view of reality does not seem real anymore. Jonah also admits to being worried. He is no longer the unconcerned person he was at the story’s start.

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“Somehow, he could gloss over the whole appearing/disappearing part of the story, just as he’d glossed over it when Katherine was telling about the vanishing man in Mr. Reardon’s office. He believed in ignoring unpleasant facts, in hopes that they’d go away.” 


(Chapter 18 , Page 164)

Jonah thinks this during the initial meeting with Angela. He does not want to accept that Angela and Katherine saw things appear and disappear. The idea does not fit in his view of the world. Jonah retreats mentally and emotionally, wanting to be unconcerned here, but his world is upended shortly after, making this denial impossible. He wants to believe he understands and has answers, but Jonah does not know anything, and the answers he does have are false.

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“Jonah hadn’t known that it would look like that. He’d heard Katherine’s description of the janitor appearing and disappearing; he’d heard Angela’s description of the plane doing the same thing. But he hadn’t understood how strange it would be, how it would set every nerve in his body on edge and make him question all sorts of basic tenets about how the world worked. Could gravity be tampered with too? Could…time?” 


(Chapter 20 , Page 182)

Jonah thinks this after he witnesses Angela disappear. Now that he has seen it for himself, Jonah cannot deny the reality of the appearances and disappearances, even though his mind wants him to. The essential truths Jonah believed about the world no longer apply.

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“Jonah had to struggle so hard to focus his mind, to concentrate on the one precise moment of memory that his brain kept trying to transform into something normal and acceptable, something that would fit with everything else he already knew about the world. He wouldn’t let his brain do that; he wouldn’t stop trusting his own eyes.” 


(Chapter 20 , Page 186)

This passage comes after Angela disappears. Jonah comes to terms with what he saw, even though it seems impossible; he decides he needs to trust himself. If he cannot believe his own eyes, he has nothing left.

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“That’s because there aren’t any logical conclusions, Jonah told himself. He’d read time-travel books, he’d seen time-travel movies, and they’d always seemed wrong to him. Couldn’t the people just keep going back again and again and again, keep changing time until it turned out the way they wanted it to? And there was some paradox he remembered hearing about, something about a grandmother—oh, yeah, time travel had to be impossible because, otherwise, you could go back in time and kill your own grandmother. But if you killed your own grandmother, then you wouldn’t exist, so you couldn’t go back in time, so your grandmother would be alive again, but then you would also exist again, so you could go back and kill your grandmother, but then you would never be born.”


(Chapter 21, Page 193)

Here, Jonah tries to rationalize time travel with what he already knows about the world. His “grandmother” scenario foreshadows the truth about Interchronological Rescue and that Jonah will travel through time. This idea is defined by JB later as the paradox, proving Jonah is mistaken here. The paradox does not disprove time travel; it is just a rule of time that time travelers must be aware of.

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“How long do we have to figure everything out? Jonah wondered. How long do we have before someone appears out of nowhere and carries us away? He’d finally told Chip and Katherine about seeing an intruder in his room, the night they’d first gotten the lists of witnesses and survivors. Then he’d explained his theory about how someone—the janitor? The janitor’s enemy?—had found out about Chip’s computer files from the note in Jonah’s desk. And how, if he—whoever “he” was—could find Jonah’s note and Chip’s computer files, then that person could just as easily tap their phones. For all Jonah knew, someone could have gone back in time to tap their phones ten years ago, but was listening to their conversations fifty years in the future. Jonah was beginning to feel hopeless. How could you resist someone with that kind of power?” 


(Chapter 22 , Pages 202-203)

These lines come after Jonah figures out JB’s warning about things that could be seen later. These lines get at the crux of written records being unsafe. Once something is written or otherwise recorded, anyone who could travel when the information exists can see it. This is another turning point for Jonah. He understands what he is up against, even though it seems impossible. Without keeping records of their findings, Jonah, Katherine, and Chip must trust one another.

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“How do we know that the government’s not involved in everything? Jonah thought. How do we know that they didn’t help E tap our phones? How do we know that the time travelers—JB or E or both of them—can’t manipulate the government however they want to? How do we know that anything’s safe?

He didn’t care anymore. He was going to the conference, no matter what. He was sick of feeling stymied.” 


(Chapter 24, Page 216)

Katherine and Jonah discuss whether the adoption conference could be a trap. Jonah is overly concerned and questions everything. He needs answers and believes the conference is the only way to get them. This foreshadows the conference not being what it seems. It is a trap, and while Jonah does get answers, they are not the ones he wanted.

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“Jonah spit into the sink, bending low so she didn’t see how the word abandoned stabbed at him.

I wasn’t abandoned, he reminded himself. I was sent. On a plane.

But was that better or worse than being abandoned?” 


(Chapter 25, Page 222)

Jonah thinks this after Katherine figures out why the babies from the plane went to different places—it would have been suspicious if 36 infants suddenly appeared at one adoption agency. The word abandoned cuts through Jonah’s emotional defenses. He is questioning who he is, and the thought that someone abandoned him does not help. He wants to believe he was sent away for a reason and that his birth parents cared about him. Not knowing makes the questions worse.

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“And it seemed suddenly that this was true—not because she was an airhead or a hottie or a nonjock, but because she could throw herself so wholeheartedly into someone else’s cause, because she could care so much and try so hard from the sidelines.

How could he understand so much about his sister’s identity and so little about his own?” 


(Chapter 25, Page 225)

The morning of the conference, Katherine is ready to go and get answers. Suddenly, Jonah understands all his sister’s best qualities. They may not be related by blood, but Katherine will do anything to help Jonah, reflecting Jonah’s earlier promise to Chip. Jonah understands his sister better than he understands himself. This calls to Katherine’s earlier discussion with Jonah about how no one knows who they are. It is easy to see who others are and much more difficult to understand oneself.

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“She passed back a stack of blank name tags and markers. Jonah’s hand shook as he carefully wrote his name, Jonah Skidmore. His name had never looked so strange to him before, so alien, as if it didn’t really belong to him.

What if I really am supposed to have some other identity? He wondered. The identity of a boy who’s…missing? Or from the future? Would I want to know that or not?”


(Chapter 25, Pages 227-228)

For the last several chapters, Jonah has wanted answers. Here, he questions if those answers are worth getting, especially if they destroy his fragile hold on what he thinks he knows about himself and the world. Jonah’s written name looks foreign to him. This takes the theme of “Who am I?” to a literal level. Jonah has always thought of himself as Jonah Skidmore. Before time travel entered his consciousness, Jonah knew he was born someone else and adopted into his name. He took having that name for granted, something he cannot do anymore.

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“Somehow that detail seemed very important, something to hold on to. Jonah didn’t feel like his brain was working very well at the moment, but he knew he wanted other kids around, nonsurvivors. Ordinary kids who had nothing to do with a strange plane or ghost stories or mysterious letters. It was like he believed those kids could protect him. […] He didn’t want his brain working properly now. He didn’t want it to reach the conclusion it was racing toward. He wanted to stay numb and ignorant and safe. Most of all, he wanted to stay safe.”


(Chapter 25, Pages 237-238)

This passage of Jonah’s thoughts comes after the kids at the conference are divided into two groups. Katherine tells Jonah their group is all kids from the survivors list, and fear overcomes Jonah’s thoughts. This is Jonah’s last attempt to stay unconcerned and forget all the impossible ways the world works. He is unsuccessful and reaches the frightening conclusion that he, Chip, and the others are in danger.

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“Jonah missed Mr. Hodge’s answer, because he was thinking, Oh, please. An ordinary classroom. With some ordinary dull adult voice droning on, so the greatest danger is that I might fall asleep…

Jonah knew he was in greater danger than that. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through his system, his whole body on alert. But he didn’t know what he was supposed to do with all that adrenaline. He didn’t know exactly what the danger was. He didn’t really believe they were going to be herded onto an airplane.

But do they need an airplane to send us somewhere—sometime—else? What if it’s like what happened to Angela, where we take one step forward and suddenly we’re gone?”


(Chapter 26 , Page 241)

Jonah thinks this when he realizes all the kids from the plane are in the same group at the conference. He has given up his unconcerned persona and worries about everything that could go wrong. Jonah might be facing the moment that confirms the world does not work like he thinks it does, and he cannot handle it. He wants to return to a time when his biggest concern was homework and pop quizzes. This desire foreshadows Jonah traveling back in time, but instead of returning to his life before it was disrupted, he goes to the 15th century.

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“What should Jonah do? Was there anyone he was sure he could trust?

That was one question he could answer.” 


(Chapter 29 , Page 267)

During the book’s final confrontation, Jonah gets his hands on the Elucidator. Gary charges him, and Jonah must prevent Gary from reclaiming the device. This passage comes right before Jonah throws the Elucidator to Katherine. Without reservation or question, he trusts his sister, completing the arc of their relationship. Jonah began the book thinking of Katherine as the annoying little sister he could not tell anything that he did not want repeated. Over the course of the story, Katherine’s take-charge attitude and loyalty shows Jonah she is trustworthy, and he trusts her by the end.

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“Babies left in houses that were then burned to the ground, children left for dead who were easily revived by our modern techniques—we could save them! Save them without causing a ripple or a paradox, because they had as good as vanished from history, even without our intervention. And, thus, we could transform those dark days of humanity into a triumph of the human spirit, of modern humanitarianism.” 


(Chapter 30, Pages 281-282)

These lines come from the promotional video about Interchronological Rescue. They set up the reveal of how Jonah and the other kids arriving in the 21st century was a mistake. Jonah understood he came from another time, but again, his understanding was not what it seemed. He came from the past, where he lived a different life for some time. He was supposed to be transported farther into the future, and JB’s intervention means that Jonah’s life as Jonah Skidmore was never meant to happen. Jonah had an identity in the past. He might have had an identity picked out for him in the future, but his present is a mistake.

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“Even tied up, they were about to come to blows again. Jonah had had it. He’d had it with the suspense, the implications, the accusations, the strain. He stood up. That wasn’t enough. He climbed up on top of a bench and yelled, ‘Who are we?’” 


(Chapter 30, Pages 284-285)

After the promotional video, Hodge, Gary, and JB argue about the fate of the kids. While they argue, they do not consider how confused and upset the kids are. Jonah speaks for all the missing kids when he demands to know who they are. Immediately after this, the kids learn they are from different points in history and are the children of famous or influential people. Jonah does not find out who he really is before the book ends, leaving him with more questions than answers. This passage once again brings the theme of “Who am I?” to a literal level. Jonah and the other kids want to know who they originally were.

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“Maybe JB and Hodge and Gary had Jonah mixed up with somebody else too. Wouldn’t it be nice to just have ordinary birth parents? Confused high school kids, maybe, who realized that they weren’t mature enough to raise a child themselves.”


(Chapter 32 , Pages 298-299)

JB told Angela she was supposed to marry a plumber and have five kids, and she told him that he had her confused with someone else. Jonah latches onto these words in a final attempt to disprove everything he has learned so far. If he got confused with someone else, he could go on as Jonah Skidmore, adopted from and by families who exist in the 21st century. While Jonah hopes this, he knows it is not true. The world works differently from how he ever thought it did, and he is caught up in the new rules of time travel.

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“He and Chip and Katherine seemed to be tumbling through the outer nothingness, but tumbling toward a vague hint of light, far off in the distance.” 


(Chapter 32 , Page 312)

Jonah thinks this as he realizes he, Katherine, and Chip are traveling back in time. After all his wondering and confusion, Jonah finally experiences time travel, and it is not what he expected. The book ends on uncertainty as Jonah, Katherine, and Chip land in the 15th century with the goal of correcting time so they can return to their home in the 21st century.

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