Test of Time: A Novel Approach to the SAT and ACT (Harvest Original)

By Charles Harrington Elster

Book Overview

Test of Time is a captivating time-travel adventure that incorporates vocabulary words from the SAT and ACT, boldfacing them throughout the novel and providing definitions in a handy back-of-the book glossary. The result is a fun and effective study method for the thousands of diligent students who take these tests each year. For Orlando Garcia Ortiz and his friends at prestigious Hadleyburg University, it's finals week. That same week, but many, many years before, a famously eccentric writer in Hartford, Connecticut, is putting the finishing touches on a manuscript about a rebellious boy named Huck. Suddenly, a bizarre thing happens: The manuscript disappears and in its place appears a strange contraption-a college student's laptop that has traveled through time. It's a mysterious set of circumstances, but our intrepid heroes at Hadleyburg, joined by Mark Twain, endeavor to retrieve their valued possessions and return to their proper places in time.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156011379
• ISBN13: 9780156011372
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 420 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 14 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 9 and higher

Customer Reviews

A Fantastic Book for Augmenting Your Vocabulary!!!!!

Though a late learner in my forties, I bought this book a few years ago from this website. I've loved this unputdownable book for the plot, humour, wit and much more. This book was so brillantly written that I bought other books by the same author, Charles Harrington Elster. The beginning of this book was hillarious with character Mark Twain's antics - really funny! At first reading, I laughed much at the descriptions of Twain's comical dancing steps and language, all the anachronistic types that he had learned from the future - all those ilks that shell-shocked Twain's strait-laced contemporaries.

SAT Novel

This is a good book that will build your SAT vocabulary. The book is a fun read so you will not get bored as you are learning new words. Great for high schoolers.(and parents too)

Very good resource for SAT/ACT prep

My 12-year-old son read this book along with another vocabulary-building novel prior to taking the ACT for a regional talent search. He actually liked the story and was able to name and discuss new words from the text. I think this would be good for any test prep that requires vocabulary including the GRE. This is not a waste of money.

Very enjoyable but disappointing ending

I am an SAT tutor and have found this book and others like it valuable to my students. Charles Harrington Elster is a master of his craft; unlike some other books of this type, his vocabulary and grammar are impeccable.* As a result, this book is very well written. What a great idea for a book-- Mark Twain in 21st century college America. Test of Time is informative and entertaining. Its ending is a bit sudden and far-fetched, though. *Believe it or not, there are SAT vocab-building books that have poor definitions.