by Lynne Jonell
“MENZIES” OR “MENGIS”?
If you are in Scotland, you might hear people pronounce the clan name so that it sounds like “Mengis” (or “Meng-yis”). This is how the clan members have always pronounced it. Why is it written with a z, then? Well, hundreds of years ago, the Scots used an old-fashioned letter called yogh to represent the sound of a g. This letter looked almost like the number three, and so the Menzies name was written like this: MEN3IES.
Unfortunately, the yogh wasn’t usually in the fonts that early Scottish printers used. The yogh did look a lot like a cursive z, though, so the printers substituted a z in script for the yogh, and the clan name was printed like this: MENIES.
You can guess what happened! After a while, people who were not in the clan forgot that the cursive z was supposed to represent a yogh. They thought it was just a z. They printed it without using the cursive script at all, so it became Menzies, and this spelling was copied over and over in many official documents. By the time someone realized that they probably should have used a g instead of a z, it was impossible to change all the documents throughout all of Scotland and everywhere else!
When my great-grandparents came to America, they decided to pronounce their name the way it was spelled, with the z sound. Later on, my grandfather and one of his brothers decided to drop the s at the end and became the Menzie brothers, to differentiate their dairy from the Menzies dairy across town.
TIME TRAVEL
Is time travel possible? Some of our greatest scientists think so … in theory, at least. Eminent physicist Michio Kaku, cofounder of string theory, puts it something like this: If you have a radio in your living room, you have all the radio frequencies in the room with you—the BBC, Radio Moscow, ABC, and many more—but your radio is only tuned to one frequency. Still, those other frequencies are vibrating all around you, ready to be picked up if only you turn the radio dial just a little bit.
What if there are other times, past and future, all around us? We can’t see them because we’re only tuned to the present. But what if we could tune our perceptions to a different time? And what if that ability was stronger in a place where connections to the past went back for many generations?
That is what happened to Will. He discovered that ability, and experimented until he knew how to use it. I don’t see why it couldn’t happen … someday.
* * *
We now believe that the universe is vibrating … probably there are other parallel universes in your living room and believe it or not this is called modern physics … get used to it.
—Michio Kaku
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply thankful for the interest and advice of the representatives of the Menzies clan. Special thanks go to Robin Menzies Bentzen, Executive Director of Development for the Menzies Clan Society of North America, whose counsel helped at numerous points, and whose enthusiasm extended even to trekking about the castle grounds with camera and notebook to answer some final questions. I am also truly grateful to George Menzies, Esq., Trustee and History and Legal Advisor to the Menzies Charitable Trust, for checking the manuscript for historical accuracy and discussing some thorny points with me; to Rory Menzies, Menzies Clan Society President and Chairman of the Menzies Charitable Trust, and Neil Menzies, Secretary of the Menzies Charitable Trust, for kind permissions and approval of the project; and to David Henderson, Castle Menzies Manager, who cheerfully poured information into my head during my visit to the castle.
Many thanks also are due to the late Drue Heinz for the Hawthornden Castle Fellowship. A month in a castle in Scotland with nothing to do but write, research, and nurture the muse was a gift beyond all praise, and laid the groundwork for this book. And I also warmly appreciate Kathleen Coskran and the Malmo Arts Colony for providing a winter retreat where further progress on this book was made.
My heartfelt thanks to my perceptive editor, Christy Ottaviano; my terrific agent, Stephen Barbara; to friend and colleague Heather Bouwman for her excellent critique; and, as always, to my dear husband, Bill, first reader and most enthusiastic of supporters.
Finally, and most of all, I remember with profound gratitude my beloved grandfather, James David Menzie. He took me on his lap when I was small and told me enthralling stories; he read me poems from his worn copy of Robert Burns; he showed me a picture of Castle Menzies and said, “There is the tree under which Bonnie Prince Charlie once played.” He fired my imagination and planted the seed for a story. It sprouted and grew, and half a lifetime later this book is the result. Under this tree, I played for many years.
OTHER BOOKS BY LYNNE JONELL
The Sign of the Cat
The Secret of Zoom
THE EMMY AND THE RAT SERIES
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls
Emmy and the Rats in the Belfry
Praise for The Secret of Zoom
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
* “This exciting tale, with just a touch of fantasy and humor, is a winner.”
—School Library Journal, starred review
Praise for the Emmy and the Rat series
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Booklist Editor’s Choice
A Smithsonian Notable Book
* “A droll fantasy with an old-fashioned sweep and a positively cinematic cast.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
* “A mystery is cleverly woven into this fun and, at times, hilarious caper, and children are likely to find themselves laughing out loud … a delightful read.”
—School Library Journal, starred review
* “Jonell takes readers on a merry, sometimes scary romp [that] turns smoothly on its fanciful premise and fabulous characters. As in so many stories featuring a rat, the sneaky rodent gets the best lines.”
—Booklist, starred review
Praise for The Sign of the Cat
Winner of the Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children’s Literature
A Bank Street College Best Book of the Year
A VOYA Best Fantasy Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
* “Intriguing, well-drawn characters, evocatively described settings, plenty of action, and touches of humor combine to create an utterly satisfying adventure.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
* “An engaging story of friendship, high seas adventure, and bravery with themes echoing Harry Potter, Treasure Island, and the Warrior cats.”
—VOYA, starred review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lynne Jonell is the author of the novels Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, Emmy and the Home for Troubled Girls, and The Secret of Zoom, as well as several critically acclaimed picture books. Her books have been named Junior Library Guild Selections and a Smithsonian Notable Book, among numerous other honors. Born in Little Falls, Minnesota, Jonell grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis. She now teaches writing at the Loft Literary Center and lives with her husband and two sons in Plymouth, Minnesota, in a house on a hill. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Chapter 1: MAGIC EYEBALL
Chapter 2: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL
Chapter 3: STEPPING THROUGH
Chapter 4: MORAG
Chapter 5: POT BOY AND CHAMBERMAID
Chapter 6: STEWARTS’ REVENGE
Chap
ter 7: ALL MIXED UP
Chapter 8: SAINT DAVID’S WELL
Chapter 9: BATTLE OF THE BLOODY HANDS
Chapter 10: FORWARD IN TIME
Chapter 11: ROMANS AND PICTS
Chapter 12: CRAY-TEE AND POUN-KA
Chapter 13: ALMOST HOME
Chapter 14: GARTH CASTLE
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Other Books by Lynne Jonell
Praise for The Secret of Zoom
About the Author
Copyright
Henry Holt and Company, Publishers since 1866
Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Henry Holt and Company, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
mackids.com
Text copyright © 2019 by Lynne Jonell
Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Vivien Mildenberger
“Flower of Scotland” by Roy Williamson, © The Corries (Music) Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jonell, Lynne, author.
Title: Time sight / Lynne Jonell.
Description: New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2019. | “Christy Ottaviano Books.” | Summary: After a family emergency sends twelve-year-old Will and five-year-old Jamie to Scotland, a Magic Eyeball book takes them and their cousin Nan on a journey through their family’s violent history.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018039229 | ISBN 978-1-250-11767-0 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-250-11768-7 (ebook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Time travel—Fiction. | Brothers—Fiction. | Cousins—Fiction. | Books—Fiction. | Scotland—Fiction. | Scotland—History—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.J675 Tim 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039229
Henry Holt ebooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 x5442 or by email at [email protected].
First edition, 2019
eISBN 9781250117687