The Split Second

by John Hulme

  A Book Sense Pick

  A Kidsreads.com Best Book

  A Teenreads.com Best Book

  A New York Public Library 100 Titles

  for Reading and Sharing Selection

  * “This is a rollicking tale, with great world-building and likable characters and a strong setup for further adventures. Unlike Garth Nix’s conceptually similar The Keys to the Kingdom series, this story is upbeat and full of humor, seeming to draw a novel from David Wiesner’s Sector 7 template.” —SLJ, starred review

  “The high sense of adventure and an abundance of goofball humor should appeal especially to boys.” —Publishers Weekly

  “Offbeat exploration of a universe-tilting idea.” —Booklist

  Text copyright © 2008 by John Hulme and Michael Wexler

  Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Gideon Kendall

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  First published in the United States of America in October 2008

  by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers

  E-book edition published in October 2010

  www.bloomsburyteens.com

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

  Hulme, John.

  The split second / by John Hulme and Michael Wexler;

  illustrations by Gideon Kendall.—1st U.S. ed.

  p. cm.—(The Seems)

  Summary: Now thirteen years old and still a Fixer in the parallel universe called The Seems, Becker Drane is called upon to repair the damage caused by an enormous bomb planted in the Department of Time, an act of terrorism perpetrated by the evil members of The Tide, a group that is trying to destroy The World.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-59990-130-5 • ISBN-10: 1-59990-130-7 (hardcover)

  [1. Terrorism—Fiction. 2. Space and time—Fiction. 3. Technology—Fiction.] I. Wexler, Michael. II. Kendall, Gideon, ill. III. Title.

  PZ7.H8844Sp 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2008012241

  ISBN 978-1-59990-676-8 (e-book)