Tunnel Through Time is a 1966 science fiction novel written by American science fiction and fantasy author Lester Del Rey

Lester del Rey

Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...

. It is a children's time travel

Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...

 adventure.

Plot summary

The novel tells the story of a boy named Bob Miller whose scientist father, Sam Miller, has invented a "time ring", a circular device that allows time travel. Bob, his friend and his friend's father ("Doc Tom", an archaeologist) travel through time in search of Bob's father, who has disappeared while traveling alone. Beginning in the Mesozoic Era (Sam's planned destination), the story depicts various adventures while the travelers jump from point to point in Earth's prehistory in search of the missing scientist.

Literary significance and reception

This book was used in many elementary and middle school

Middle school

Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...

 classrooms for reading and literature classes, and gained a notable popularity with its straightforward but dramatic writing style..

Publishing history

The book was originally published in hardcover by the Westminster Press

Westminster Press

Westminster Press refers perhaps to one of these:* Westminster Press was a printing company in London run by Gerard Meynell, printer of the Imprint...

 in May 1966 and in paperback by Scholastic Inc. It was reprinted several times, most recently in 1974.