This book was so fun to read! I didn't know what to expect, but it sounded fun and that is definitely what it was. It was super fast paced and easy to read, so really perfect for its intended audience. The pace kept me engaged and the characters leapt off the page for me, which I think is another thing that will be beneficial for younger readers. I also really liked the real life references to historical events and figures. Overall it was a fun and quick read that I think is perfect for younger readers but could be picked up by anyone.

A decent idea for a novel, though I found the execution a bit lacking. The focus is more on obnoxious characters than on the failings or mechanics of the time machine. The solutions to problems are a bit haphazard and the humor is of a low variety

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
While the story was interesting, Liam and Elsa were not that interesting as characters. Liam read like the dumb sidekick and Elsa was the all-knowing leader.

After Liam tries to bring Thomas Edison to the current day for his school project and the wrong Thomas Edison arrives, Liam and Elsa continue to encounter a cadre of problems. It is one accident after another. They continue to find what they think are answers only for other bad things to happen.

This is a very cute book. My third grade grandson and I read it together and enjoyed it very much. The story was funny and the characters held out attention. He also enjoy the few drawings at the beginning of chapters. I would definitely recommend this book for that age group. This book sprinkled history around in the story in a fun way.


I received an ARC from Andrews McMeel Publishing through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

A great read for younger readers! I know my students will love it so I will definitely add it to my classroom collection. Overall really fun.

What a fantastic, funny read that is sure to entice many young readers. Who doesn't love time travel, friends, mistakes, and everything it takes to put things right again! This is a must-have for any classroom.

Thank you NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity to read an advance reading copy.

This one was certainly engaging, a very funny read. Liam and Elsa were perfect complements to each other. Tommy Twinkles was there for chaos and comic relief much of the time. I could certainly convince the kids at my school to give this one a try, and it's so much funnier than most books of the genre. I wonder if there will be a sequel. The end seems to imply that it's possible, though it could easily work as a stand alone text. In any case, I was highly amused and I hope other readers will be as well.

Liam has a habit of waking up with just enough time to get to the school bus, timed to the second. But when he gets out of his house, he is met with a bunch of strangers complaining about him cutting in line. It turns out that it’s the day of the garage sale, but Liam can’t stop. He has to get to school.

By the time he gets home, the line is gone. The garage sale is over. Since the sale was at Professor Snellenberg’s house, and he was known for his crazy inventions, Liam was disappointed that there was nothing left. He was hoping to find something he could use as a visual aid in his book report. Especially since he didn’t read the book. But when he looks around the empty garage, he notices a high shelf with something covered by a tarp.

Liam finds a way to climb up to the shelf and finds a flattened cardboard box that says, “World’s Worst Time Machine.” He thinks it looks interesting, so he sneaks it out of the garage and into his basement. When he plugs it in and tells it he wants to meet Thomas Edison, the machine burps out smoke and a kid appears in the basement with him. He says that his name is Thomas Edison, but he goes by Tommy Twinkles, and he’s a gangster. Liam doesn’t think that he’s the Thomas Edison he was looking for.

When Liam realizes his mistake, he turns the time machine on again to try to send him back to his own time. But instead, his parents get pulled into the machine and disappear. Liam is stunned and doesn’t know what to do. But he knows someone who knows a lot of things. His friend Elsa shows up to help him with the time machine, immediately jumping into action like she knew all about it. Because, Liam realizes, she knows all about it.

As they try to fix the chaos that the time machine has created, things go wrong and get more out of control, until Liam’s basement is overrun with gangsters and Cheetos are not enough to keep them in line anymore. It will take a cunning plan, some hard work, and a lot of luck to set things right again. Will Liam and Elsa be able to right time again, or will the chaos win?

The best-selling author of the Trapped in a Video Game series Dustin Brady puts his creative storytelling mind back to work with World’s Worst Time Machine, a middle grade novel with lots of whimsy and a few interesting facts about history as well. This story is creative, complicated, chaotic, and kind of hilarious and will keep kids reading until the end.

I thought World’s Worst Time Machine was a big, fun read. I loved the characters and how they had to think outside the box to find a solution to the chaos around them. This one has a lot of heart and a lot of humor, and I especially appreciate that a lot of this chaos could have been prevented if Liam had just read the book.

Egalleys for The World’s Worst Time Machine were provided by Andrews McMeel Publishing through NetGalley, with many thanks.

World's Worst Time Machine is such a fun read that captures your imagination right from the start! It has a great mix of zany mishaps and madcap adventures sprinkled with surprises. I laughed so much and really appreciated the underlying messaging about friendship and the power of belief. It's a great start to a new series that is sure to be a hit for adventure-loving kids and their adults. Highly recommend.

This fun middle grade novel is going to be a hit with young readers! The author's comedic and interesting writing style, paired with a fun time traveling 5th grade adventure, will definitely keep readers interested! The story is about Liam, a 5th grader who does not want to read the book his biography project is on, and also wants to investigate a garage sale at the house of his mad scientist neighbour. When he finds the world's worst time machine and begins to travel through time, everything gets a little crazy - in a good way! Liam is a fun character, young readers will likely relate to, and his female best friend, Elsa is the no-nonsense and mature part of the duo, keeping things realistic and down to earth - as much is possible in this story! The book is under 200 pages and is divided into 26 chapters. The font is a good size and well spaced, with some black and white pictures throughout. The story is engaging but also easy to follow and the writing is really great. I would definitely purchase a copy of this book for my classroom library and could see my grade 3 students really enjoying it. I would recommend this book for readers who are ready for a bit more of a challenge, moving into the middle grades, likely kids in the age 8-12 range. I could also see it being a fun shared reading experience (with parents or teachers) for slightly younger children or struggling readers. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book!

This book is cute for middle grade readers! I did read this to my younger elementary school aged kid and would let her read some parts and then read longer sections out loud to her. We loved the illustrations, the simple text and how it broke up the speaking parts in different paragraphs - preparing kids more for longer chapter books. I also like how it threw in some pop culture such as the characters "teasing" Elsa about the movie Frozen and relating the scientist Nick Tesla to the "guy who invented Tesla." I think these types of things make the reading more relatable to kids in present day.

It is a good length book (194 pages) but it reads rather quickly. Good for younger kids to have some pictures thrown in there periodically. I do think this book is geared more for boys but my daughter did like it as well.

Recommended ages: 8-12
#WorldsWorstTimeMachine #NetGalley

My 8 year old son loved Dustin Brady's Trapped In A Video Game series so he was very excited to read World's Worst Time Machine. It didn't disappoint! He hopes it will be turned into a series! He said this was a great read, had lots of funny moments and would recommend it to others his age. He reads at an advanced level, so I'm thinking it is ideal for ages 8-12.

Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing and NetGalley for this ARC!

This author has already created the “Trapped in a Video Game” series, “Escape from a Video Game” series, and the “Leila & Nugget Mysteries” series. In his newest one, Liam and Elsa find what appears to be a time machine at a garage sale. It seems fine until the Thomas Edison they bring back is not that Thomas Edison, but a wanna be gangster. Filled with laugh-out-loud humor accompanies by illustrations is fun for all readers, but might be just the ticket for those reluctant readers.

I am really enjoying this middle grade. I think more middle grades should have short illustrated chapters for the age group they’re aimed at nowadays! The title and cover immediately caught me and the writing is really easy to read and get hooked on.

Review to come April closer to the release day on my blog/goodreads/etc..

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

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Yesterday night (on the 13th of Feb) I just couldn't sleep so I thought I would read this book, or well, I thought I would read it partially, but then in the end I just read it all. It was at times a bit of a struggle, and sometimes I just wanted to put it away. There were just elements I wasn't enjoying. Thankfully, there were also some elements I did love.

😊 I liked the cover + the illustrations, they were fun! I like the style.
😊 It was fun that it was also about Gangsters and that at the end of the book we even got some history on gangsters and the likes.
😊 I loved the time machine and how chaotic and weird it was. How you needed to do all the right things + hold on to some slime because if chaos happens... you need slime.
😊 The addition of villains was something I liked.
😊 So much cheetos. Sorry, I do like some good cheetos, so I approve of that.
😊 Loved seeing what the various chaos levels did. From just sucking up people to rifts and purple lightning. Yup!

😕 But I am done and done and done with giving bullies a spotlight. I see it happen way too many times and I am just done. I don't need to see them, they don't need to play an element in the story. Just don't.
😕 Elsa. I just had NO clue what was going on with her, I had several theories, and sadly the one that I was hoping wasn't it happened to be the one. I had expected something epic.
😕 The book was just too much and too chaotic for me. I just never had the room to breathe or think, you were just dragged along even if you may not want to. Each time you thought they may get close to something BOOM, something would happen and we were back to square one. At times I had to re-read as things just sped by. At times I just took a small break.
😕 Why didn't anyone hide that time machine better? If you know what it is and does and how bad it can all go, why not just bury it somewhere? Find a safer spot? Something? HELLO?
😕 I found Tommy and Liam at times just too annoying. Tommy I could kind of forgive as he is from ages ago and has no clue what to do in this world, but Liam, LORD boo just read something for a change. XD
😕 The ending, I had actually, probably because it was late and the read was so chaotic for me, forgotten about that part. Haha. But I guess, yeah that needs to be solved, but given we barely hear about it after it was told it just came out of the blue.
😕 There are time travel rules and they were all just broken.
😕 That adults, once again, are getting the short end of the stick. They get sucked into the machine for dumb reasons. They don't hold enough belief because they are old. Can we just drop that crap? It gets old and annoying.

All in all, it had its moments, but we just didn't click that well. I am still happy I had the chance to read it, so thank you to the publisher/Netgalley.

My sixth grader and I enjoyed it a lot! I would recommend for 4th- 6th grade. Lots of fun! I would purchase more books from this author.

My 11-year-old finished this pretty quickly! He loves to read, loves history and he was super interested in this book because of the idea of time travel. He said it was funny as well as interesting and that he hopes to read more books by this author. Thank you netgalley for this Arc and exchange for an honest review

My nine year old enjoys the illustrations throughout this volume. Some of the references go a bit over his head, so I would think that fifth through eighth graders would enjoy this novel fully.

The premise is interesting, though the main character is somewhat unlikable at first. The irony did not escape me that he was avoiding reading a book for his project while my son was reading THIS book! The supporting character is relatable, however, so I think that it’s engaging enough for early readers. My son is very interested in history, so we are excited about the theme of this new series.

First, if you haven't read any books by this author, you are missing out! This book, like his others, has a great adventure, intriguing characters and is fast paced. The chapters were divided up well making the story flow quickly. The illustrations were excellent and really helped you visualize the situations that are being described. The story itself is intriguing. I especially liked how there were real historical people alluded to in the story. At the end of the book the author puts abbreviated information on those real people, which I found enjoyable. Overall, it is a well written book filled with adventure and fun characters. Looking forward to the next book in this series!

This is an upper-middle-grade chapter book that is fast-paced & funny. I enjoyed this book as an adult, and I can imagine many young readers just loving this adventure.
Liam & Elsa are lovable characters, but like most middle school friends, they do struggle with listening to one another. The plot moves quickly and makes you want to keep turning the page. It's funny & suspenseful at the same time.
Throughout the silliness though, there are references to real historical events and characters and important lessons for readers (young and old alike) to carry away from this book.
Though I am nearing 40 years old, I learned for the first time about temporal rifts, and I even learned a new vocabulary word or two, though the book is definitely well written for its intended audience.
One of my favorite quotes from the book? "The world will remember you. Do something worth remembering."
The adult, history lover side of me loved reading the extras in the back of the book. They were concise and worth the time to read. Even that part had some elements of surprise and humor that delighted me!
Though my kids are teens, I am begging them to read this because truly it is such a fun read. In my opinion, it's books like this that create lifelong readers.
Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for my ARC of "The Worst Time Machine In the World."