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Time CastawaysEDUCATOR’S GUIDE

Includes Common Core State Standards correlations

Time Castaways #1: The Mona Lisa Key cover

Time Castaways #2: The Obsidian Compass cover

Time Castaways #3: The Forbidden Lock cover

About the Series

Matt, Ruby, and Corey Hudson’s parents don’t have too many rules. It’s the usual stuff: Be good. Do your homework. And never ride the subway without an adult, EVER. But when the siblings wake up late for school, they have no choice but to break a rule. The Hudson siblings board the subway in Manhattan and end up on a frigate ship in Paris…in the year 1911.

As time does tell, the Hudson family has a lot of secrets. The past, present, and future are intertwined—and a time-traveling ship called the Vermillion is at the center. Racing to untangle the truth, the kids find themselves in the middle of one of the greatest art heists of all time. And the adventure is just getting started.

The adventure begun in The Mona Lisa Key continues in The Obsidian Compass and concludes in The Forbidden Lock, completing the Time Castaways trilogy.

About the Author

Liesl Shurtliff is the New York Times bestselling author of the (Fairly) True Tales series and the Time Castaways trilogy. When she writes, Liesl likes to wander back to her childhood and gather the magic that remains so she can share it with children everywhere. Books in her (Fairly) True Tales series have been named to 20+ state award lists and have won many awards including a Children’s Book Award from the International Literacy Association. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Liesl now lives in Chicago with her family.

Discussion Questions

Point of View

Most of the time in The Mona Lisa Key, we see things from the Hudsons’ point of view – mostly Matt’s. But we also see another point of view from time to time. Whose is it? And what does switching points of view like this bring to the story?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6

Time Period

The Hudson children get to experience different points in history as they journey on the time-traveling ship, the Vermillion. Which historical period interests you most? What do you think are some positive and negative aspects about that time period?

Time Period and Location Culture

All the pirates on the Vermillion ship come from earlier time periods. Compare and contrast two or more characters from different time periods and locations. What are the differences in their speech, manners, beliefs, and education?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3

Annie Oakley holding a rifle, around 1880

The Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I

An antique brass pocket compass on a chain

Technology

Captain Vincent has a very special compass to help the Vermillion get places. Most compasses aren’t magic, but they must have seemed like magic when they were first invented. Do you know how normal compasses work? They are just one kind of technology that humans have used over the years to find our way around. Can you think of others? What new technologies do we have today to help us get places, and how do they change how we live?

Discussion Questions

Officials with the recovered Mona Lisa, 1913

The tower of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

The first Ferris wheel at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

The Last Voyage of Henry Hudson, a painting by John Collier

Sourcing and Fact Checking

Several historical events, places, and people appear throughout the Time Castaways series. Here’s a list of a few examples:

Book 1

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York
The 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum in Paris, France
Queen Elizabeth I at Richmond Palace in 1603
The treasure vaults at the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, India

Book 2

Henry Hudson, the explorer
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL
Annie Oakley
Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful

Book 3

Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite
The Forbidden City in Beijing, China
Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City of Colombia

Find at least three sources about one of these places, events, or people. In what ways did the author stick to the facts and where did she take liberties?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.8 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.7 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.8

Museum History

Matt, Ruby, and Corey’s parents work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The first museum ever was the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, which opened in 1683. Why do you think humans started building museums? If you could build a museum, what would it be a museum of, and why?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, around 1900

Discussion Questions

Time Castaways #3: The Forbidden Lock

The Meridian Gate of the Forbidden City in Beijing, 1930

Stone terraces of Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City, in the Colombian jungle

Inventions and Consequences

In The Forbidden Lock, the Hudsons cross paths with Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Dynamite made mining and building tunnels, roads, and railways faster, but it was also used as a weapon. Later, Nobel left most of his fortune to create the Nobel Prizes. Can an invention be good or bad, or does it depend on how people use it? Choose an invention from your own lifetime. What good has it done, and what problems has it caused?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.2 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1

A Perfect Future?

Captain Vincent wants to rewrite history to create his perfect future. If you could change one event in history, what would it be, and why? What might happen that you didn’t expect? Is there such a thing as a perfect future, and who gets to decide what “perfect” means?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2

Forbidden and Lost Places

For nearly 500 years, the Forbidden City in Beijing was home to China’s emperors, and ordinary people could not go inside. Ciudad Perdida, the Lost City of Colombia, was built in the mountains around 800 CE, hundreds of years before Machu Picchu, and the outside world didn’t learn about it until the 1970s, although the Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada had known about it all along. Why are some places kept forbidden, or hidden? What can places like these teach us about the people who built them?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.7

Family Secrets

From the very first book, the Hudsons discover that their family has a lot of secrets. In The Forbidden Lock, Matt learns more about where he comes from. How can learning about your family’s history change the way you see yourself? Why do you think families sometimes keep secrets, and when is it better to share the truth?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3

Activity

Design a Prize

In his will, Alfred Nobel left his fortune to reward people whose work brings “the greatest benefit to mankind.” The first Nobel Prizes were given in 1901 for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. If you could create a brand-new prize, what would it honor? Write the rules: who can win, how the winner is chosen, and what they receive. Then nominate someone (from history, from your own community, or from the Time Castaways books) and write a short speech explaining why they deserve it.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.4

Activities

Time-Mind Benders

In Time Castaways there is always a question of what will happen if characters interfere with events outside their own timelines. Can they change the past? If so, what will happen in the future? Write your own time-travel story! Send your character to the past. Research that particular time in history and the events that took place, then place your character in the midst of it. What happens? What can they do? What can they not do? Try different cause and effect outcomes and see what you like best.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.10

Map-Makers

Mr. Hudson is obsessed with maps and says that “a good map could tell more about ancient civilization than novel-length recorded history.” Have you ever drawn a map? Try mapping your home, neighborhood, or school. What information would you need to make the map accurate? Why is accuracy important in maps?

A world map from 1630 by Henricus Hondius, with two hemispheres

Home or Class Museum

The Hudsons’ first stop on the Vermillion is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, which is kept in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Here is a sample museum card for the Mona Lisa:

Title:: Mona Lisa (La Joconde)
Creator:: Leonardo da Vinci (born 1452, died 1519)
Material(s):: Oil on poplar wood panel
Country and date of origin:: Italy, 1503

Try creating one of your own—for a famous object, or maybe an everyday item you can find in your home, or even something you’re wearing right now. Your classroom could create its own class museum!

Activities

Era Costume Party

Brocco is the ship’s weapons and disguise master. He is tasked with making sure the crew is dressed appropriately for any given time period. Invite your students to dress in a different time period. Have them share the significance or purpose of any given piece of clothing (e.g., bonnets, corsets, garters, suspenders). Have an era costume parade! (Perfect for a Halloween activity!)

A hand-coloured print of a gentleman’s costume from the time of Louis XIII, with ruff collar and cape

Time Musings

The British Queen Elizabeth we meet in The Mona Lisa Key was a real historical figure and was the second woman to sit on the English throne. She is rumored to have said on her deathbed: “All my possessions for a moment of time.” What do you think she meant by this? People have a lot of sayings about time. Here are a few famous ones:

“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.” —Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The trouble is, you think you have time.” —Buddha
“How did it get so late so soon?” —Dr. Seuss
“Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” —Jean de La Bruyère, Les Caractères
“Time is the longest distance between two places.” —Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” —Charles Darwin
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying ‘I don’t want to.’” —Lao Tzu
“You may delay, but time will not.” —Benjamin Franklin
“Time is an illusion.” and “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” —Albert Einstein
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” —Theophrastus
“The key is in not spending time, but investing it.” —Stephen R. Covey

Pick one and write about it. What do you think they mean? What does time mean to you? How do you think it can work for or against us?

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2