Lizard Larson and the Time Keeper

Action-packed, exciting, and full of surprises, Lizard Larson and the Time Keeper by Gary Natoli is an excellent book choice for middle school and early teenage readers. Told from the perspective of Elizabeth Larson, otherwise known as Lizard, readers are in for a memorable adventure through multiple universes and dimensions of time!

Fourteen-year-old Lizard is unique; the daughter of two physicists, she has spent most of her childhood days between their laboratories. At school, she is neither popular nor disliked; rather, Lizard is respected for her peculiarities at a healthy distance from most of her peers. Her best friend Mahalia and two other allies, Skye and Nick, are all she needs. But, one day all of that changes. Abruptly pulled out of school by her parents, they tell her she must leave immediately to stay with her aunt.

Giving little to no explanation, she is thrust into a train station where unbeknownst to her family, an unwanted man awaits them. Before she knows it, Lizard is standing as witness to an alleged terrorist bombing, watching her entire world fall before her eyes… or is she? Could this horrible reaction leaving Grand Central Station in flames be caused by something else? And why suddenly does Lizard seem to have a special ability? One that allows her to stop time?

With these shocking events underway, government conspiracies begin to unravel, enemy attacks pour in, and chaos ensues, leaving Lizard in an entirely new world, one in which she is responsible for saving humanity. Will she be able to accomplish the enormous tasks at hand? Readers must discover that themselves!

A strong read for a middle school to teenage audience, Natoli formulated a novel perfect for science fiction enthusiasts and adventure junkies. He did a fantastic job clearly writing the plot, which is no small feat with interlapping time dimensions at play! Similarly, he paced the novel superbly, keeping the timeline cohesive and coherent for readers to follow despite a complicated web of time travel. His attention to these small nuances, as well as a fantastic plot line and descriptive imagery, made this novel one well-worth reading.

A review of this novel would be incomplete without complimenting Natoli for the pure creativity that shone through in this book. From his description of the Time Keeper, a sort of Willy Wonka of clocks, to Doctor Kali’s futuristic mechanical eye and Archie’s Time Repair shop, his imagination curated an amusing read for his audience!