Will Geller Matt Akroyd Carrie Aldrich Ellie Hoag

Summary This story is about the Oliffes, a family from the future that travels back in 20 million years. It is told from the point-of-view of the kids, Jon and Neesha. It also includes some letters that Neesha wrote to her friend, Landra. In this story, the family travels through time in their shuttle. They travel to 20 million years ago, where they see that Earth is just an empty land. They travel to 51 million years ago, where all of the continents are connected by land bridges, and they were all bunched together up by the North Pole. Their final jump was to 68 million years ago. When they are here, Neesha gets sick of eating “grease trough” food, so she takes Jon out to the woods to show him the ostrich eggs she was planning on cooking, but then the mother ostrich saw them and chased them. When they were in this era, they also saw a T-Rex. That is where our excerpt ended, but they continued to travel in time.

Focus Question  What was society like 68 million years ago during the time of the dinosaurs?

Exposition  Two Paleontologists searching for fossils in Australia find a time capsule  They found Diaries in the capsule written by the the Olifee Family from the 22 nd century  The two kids Jon and Neesha wrote about their findings of robot bugs in a small chamber

Exposition  While the family was observing the “bug- bots” the chamber transformed into a space shuttle and launched itself  The shuttle went through a worm hole and sent the Olifee’s back in time

Rising Action The Olifee’s land in the Late Pleistocene era, 20,000 years b.p. (before the present) This is the time of the ice age They find a bubble cart in the shuttle and go exploring The bubble cart got stuck in a tar pit and they nearly escape a Teratorn!

Rising Action They take off in the shuttle for a second time and land in the Early Eocene era, 51 million years b.p. They went back to a time where land Bridges connected North America to Europe, and everything was green

Rising Action  The family takes off for a 3 rd time and land in the late Cretaceous era 68 million years b.p.  The family sees triceratops's

Climax/Turning Point Jon and Neesha decide to find something new for breakfast Neesha found some eggs and wanted to take them, but before Jon could say no a huge ostrich dinosaur came out of the woods

Climax/Turning Point The ostrich dinosaur started to run towards them so Neesha and Jon ran away They realized that they were in a very dangerous place and time

Falling Action The family discusses how the dinosaurs were killed off by a meteor 6 miles long Jon gets afraid that they could get hit but his mom assured him it was a few millions of years away The next day Jon and his father were outside the space shuttle when the ground started shaking

Falling Action The family runs into the shuttle, and suddenly it takes off In the air they spot a T-rex and are relived that the shuttle took off The family continues to travel back 800 million years in time

Sci-Fi Elements  The Olifee family travels back in time  They travel in a space shuttle made and controlled by robot bugs

Story Responses  Carrie’s response- Carrie did not enjoy the book, but she did think some of the facts were interesting.  Matt’s response- Matt enjoyed the book, especially liked the interesting facts about dinosaurs.  Will’s response- Will liked it, but there was no real element suspense in the story.  Ellie’s response- Ellie did not particularly enjoy the story, but she would recommend this book to people who enjoy a good Sci-Fi story and like dinosaurs and prehistoric times.

Picture Citations!          