On Etruscan Time

Time-honored advice on how to write a "great" story says that an author's text must convince a reader to suspend disbelief. Tracy Barrett has presented her readership with another great story. While her suspenseful book ON ETRUSCAN TIME educates, entertains and delights, it also fueled my willingness to suspend disbelief. After all, is it not reasonable to dream that somewhere in time or space a "magic-eye" stone exists with which remarkable experiences are possible? Quoting Albert Einstein's comment, "The distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent." is one small example of Ms. Barrett's genius feel for her subject. I highly recommend this book for all readers but particularly for those whose hearts, minds, and imaginations are without age.

On Etruscan Time is fun, and how good Dr. Barrett is at the tiny detail that fixes in your mind a person or scene. The book is vividly written, and, instructive (about Italy and archeology); the instruction felicitously handled. And there's enough tension and painful anxiety to cause this reader to read the whole in two sittings, punctuated only by an abbreviated night's sleep.. And the story stays with you. I'm still hoping for word from a DNA-determining lab that those were dog bones. Martha Bennett Stiles

Tracy Barrett has masterfully created a story that any adventure seeker will enjoy. Whether you are male, female, young or old, you will not be able to put this book down!

Full of adventure, surprise and suspense, this book delivers a time travel punch when reluctant Hector from the U.S. is forced to spend his summer in Italy with his archaeologist mother. He'd rather be at home with his friends, but fate gives him a new friend, Arath, who lived 2000 years ago and who needs Hector's help. Tracy Barrett has written a fun read, full of explanations of another culture, far removed from our own and yet similar in many ways, and combined that with archaeological dig experiences that fascinate and inspire the imagination.

Eleven-year-old Tennessean Hector reluctantly forfeits part of his summer vacation to accompany his mother on a small archaeological dig in Italy, where a team is searching for artifacts from the ancient Etruscan civilization, precursors to the mighty Romans. But the archaeologists are running out of time - if they don't find something more interesting than pottery shards, their sponsors will back out and close up shop. Hector joins in, but his most significant find appears to be a tourist's bauble - until it begins to glow mysteriously one night, leading Hector back down to the dig site, and then into the depths of antiquity itself. There Hector meets an Etruscan boy named Arath, who will soon become the very bones the archaeologists have already found in a sacrificial pit - unless Hector can save him! Parents will find Hector's honesty and openness refreshing, while younger readers will immediately identify with the boy's feeling that the adults in his life aren't taking him seriously. ON ETRUSCAN TIME is at once a tantalizing glimpse into an obscure yet significant Western culture and an intriguing life-and-death mystery. Will the archaeological dig be shut down? Will Arath be sacrificed to ancient Etruscan gods? Can Hector find a way to save both? Time is certainly on his side . . . Recommended for girls and boys of all ages.