Harper Wells Renegade Timeline Officer

By Bethany Loveridge

Reviewed by Meg Rowe

Talented and versatile author/illustrator Bethany Loveridge’s debut middle grade novel Harper Wells Renegade Timeline Officer brings an original and imaginative take to the time travel genre and shines in its ability to bring Australian history to life. With echoes of Ruth Park’s classic Playing Beatie Bow and a similar feel to Belinda Murrell’s Elsewhere Girls time-slip stories, Harper Wells Timeline Officer’s themes include friendship, family, kindness, grief, problem solving, history and the environment.

Monitor, watch and report is the brief for Timeline Officers. Will Harper be able to travel back in time and fulfil her ‘script’ to ensure key events in Australian historical figure Edith Cowan’s life occur without tampering with the past? Of course not – she is a renegade! But a renegade with a big heart who is determined to do what is right, even if it means breaking a few rules. With the help of seasoned, rule-abiding Timeline Officer, Maximilian, Harper gradually gets the hang of her Timeline Officer duties while also learning there are dark forces at work within the time travel world she must navigate.

Loveridge is a skilled world builder, creating immersive plots lines with layers of mystery middle grade readers will love. The search for the missing Timeline Officer who owns the time travelling bed Harper finds at the local op shop, propelling her into the role of ‘accidental’ timeline traveller, and the mysterious disappearance of Harper’s mum are well paced, and the effect Harper’s mum’s disappearance has on Harper, her dad and older brother, Morris, are sensitively and realistically portrayed.

Harper Wells Renegade Timeline Officer is a great choice for middle grade readers and with two more books in the Wollemi Trilogy to come we can look forward to more of Harper’s time travelling adventures.

Wombat Books 2025

Bethany Loveridge