The Time Keeper

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
240 pages
Publisher:  Hyperion
ISBN:  1401322786
Level/Lexile:  9-12th grade/NA
Annotation/Teaser:  This is the journey of the man who invented the first clock and tried to measure the hours.  He becomes Father Time as he goes on a journey with two unlikely characters. 
Plot Summary:  This is a fable written about a man, Dor,  who invents the first clock to try to measure the hours.  He becomes Father Time but in the process is punished because he tried to measure God's gift.  He is banished to a cave where he can hear the voices of everyone who wishes for more days or more years.  After spending many years in the cave, he is set free and sent on a journey with a mission and a magic hourglass that he uses to slow time.  He is sent to save two people.  One is a teenage girl who wants to end her life.  The other an wealthy, elderly man who wishes to prolong his life when he finds out he has cancer and will soon be dead.  On this journey, the three characters lives become entertwined as we see that the cost of counting time is not always worth it. 
About the Author:  Mitch Albom was born on May 23, 1958 in Passaic, New Jersey, the middle of three children to Rhoda and Ira Albom. The family moved to the Buffalo, N.Y. area briefly before settling in Oaklyn, New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia. Mitch grew up wanting to be a cartoonist before switching to music. He taught himself to play piano, and played in bands, including The Lucky Tiger Grease Stick Band, throughout his adolescence. After attending high schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, he left for college after his junior year. He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979 at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, majoring in sociology, but stayed true to his dream of a life in music, and upon graduation, he worked for several years as a performer, both in Europe and America.
In his early 20’s, while living in New York, he took an interest in journalism and volunteered to work for a local weekly paper, the Queens Tribune. He eventually returned to graduate school, earning a Master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, followed by an MBA from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. During this time, he paid his tuition partly through work as a piano player.  Mitch eventually turned full-time to his writing, working as a freelance sports journalist in New York for publications such as Sports Illustrated, GEO, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. His first full time newspaper job was as a feature writer and eventual sports columnist for The Fort Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel in Florida. He moved to Detroit in 1985, where he became a nationally-acclaimed sports journalist at the Detroit Free Press and one of the best-known media figures in that city’s history, working in newspapers, radio and television. He currently hosts a daily talk show on WJR radio (airsMonday through Friday, 5-7 p.m. EST) and appears regularly on ESPN Sports Reporters and SportsCenter.
 In 1995, he married Janine Sabino. That same year he re-encountered Morrie Schwartz, a former college professor who was dying of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. His visits with Schwartz would lead to the book Tuesdays with Morrie, which moved Mitch away from sports and began his career as an internationally recognized author.  Tuesdays with Morrie is the chronicle of Mitch’s time spent with his beloved professor. As a labor of love, Mitch wrote the book to help pay Morrie’s medical bills. It spent four years on the New York Times Bestseller list and is now the most successful memoir ever published. His first novel, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, is the most successful US hardcover first adult novel ever. For One More Day debuted at No.1 on the New York Times Bestseller List and spent nine months on the list.
Albom has founded seven charities, many in the metropolitan Detroit area: The Dream Fund, A Time To Help, and S.A.Y Detroit, an umbrella organization for charities dedicated to improving the lives of the neediest, including the S.A.Y. Detroit Family Health Clinic. A Hole in the Roof Foundation helps faith groups of every denomination who care for the homeless repair the spaces in which they carry out their work. The seed that gave root to the Foundation – and also inspired its name—was the hole in the roof of the I Am My Brother's Keeper church in inner-city Detroit, written about in Have a Little Faith.
Mitch Albom Bio (n.d.) Retrieved from www.mitchalbom.com

Critical Evaluation:  The characters in this story are somewhat stereotypical.  Sarah is a typical teenager.  She feels awkward and unloved.  Victor is the stereotypical businessman.  He has become hard and selfish.  These two characters didn't stand out much in the story.  But the character of Dor is very creative.  The traditional picture we see of Father Time is the old man with the long gray hair.  This is not the case with Dor.  The reader first sees him as a rustic child who has an obsession with counting.  It is such a great way to imagine Father Time. 


Curriculum Ties:  N/A 

Book Talk Ideas:  Talk about the value of time in our own lives. 

Controversial Issues:  N/A

Defense: There are no apparent challenge issues in this book.  If it were to be challenged I would do the following: 

*I will keep the library's selection policy on hand and memorized with a good understanding  of the standards and policies to show that the selection meets the standards. 

*I will keep good and bad reviews (both electronic and print) and make sure they are from reliable and respected sources such as School of Library Journal, Booklist, and YALSA. I will have copies of these reviews to give away. 

*I will confirm the library's position to provide intellectual freedom as stated in the Library Bill of Rights and keep a copy of this.

*I will keep a written rationale to justify the reasons this material is included in the collection, such as educational significance and curriculum ties.

*I will be respectful and calm and practice "active listening".

*I will make sure I read the material and are very familiar with it.

* I will keep a reconsideration form on file in the event that my other strategies don't work. 

Why I Chose This Book:  I chose this book because it is a beautiful piece of fantasy literature.  Although a short read, it is thought provoking and creative.