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by Timothy Mason

The tiny mountain town of Faith, Colorado, is a quiet place – often too quiet for twelve-year-old Rob and his best friend, Phoebe. But this spring, as the winter snows melt, the disappearance of a neighborhood pet signals the start of a life-and-death adventure that will change Rob's and Phoebe's lives – and possibly the history of life on earth – forever. Long before the first dinosaur appeared, the world was populated by a class of creatures called synapsids. Some were gentle, plant-eating beasts that looked like a turtle crossed with a wiener-dog. Others were fierce, flesh-eating predators. Now two of these creatures from the Permian era have wandered into a time snag and emerged in Faith. Rob and Phoebe are astonished to encounter one of them on the mountain, speaking English and asking for their help. The last synapsid – Sid, as the kids call him – is purusing the violent, carnivorous gorgonopsid. The Gorgon has become obsessed with humanity and refuses to return to his proper place in time. But if he doesn't, the synapsid line will die out, humans will never evolve, and Rob and Phoebe (and all of us mammals) will end up as nothing more than figures in an elderly synapsid's dream.

"The genuinely suspenseful, often wryly comical novel unfolds like a murder mystery... a time-traveling cautionary tale -almost in the spirit of A Christmas Carol... Mason effectively weaves emotionally resonant stories of seventh-grade angst (school teasing, absent fathers, mother conflicts and frissons of romance) with death-defying, planet-saving hijinks involving fanged, sometimes malodorous Permian-era beasts - not an easy feat. - Kirkus Reviews