Morse Code, the third book in Sue C. Dugan’s the Land, Sea, and Air series, plunges readers into double-layered intrigue. It’s a riot of sleuthing, history, and time itself at play.
At one end of the story, young British twins Dot and Dash Foxshire encounter three peculiar strangers around their parents’ archaeological dig in 1921’s Guatemala. Oddly overdressed for the jungle, the newcomers reveal they had just survived both the shipwrecks of the Titanic in 1912 and the S.S. Austria in 1858 (see Book One: Save Our Ships).
Meanwhile, Morse Code picks up where Book Two: Mayday left off. Jessie, her father, and Ben make it home from a remote island in the past, unaware that Prince, a man native to that island, has secretly stowed away with them into the future.
His presence in 2016 quickly attracts the government’s attention; a linguist studies Prince in quarantine and grows fascinated with his hybrid system of gestures and speech, identifying it as an extinct Mayan language. Having safely arrived home in 2016’s Florida, Jessie seeks guidance from Roberto, an attractive boy at her school whose knowledge of time-space travel gives Jessie a new theory about where Prince really came from.
Jessie persuades the linguist to travel back into the Guatemalan jungle and return Prince to his home—with her older brother, Phil, acting as reluctant chaperone. However, their expedition takes an unexpected turn when an earthquake in Guatemala hurls Jessie and Prince into 1921, where they cross paths with Dot, Dash, and the Titanic trio.
The delight of Morse Code lies in its willingness to let two plots collide head-on, embracing historical what-ifs with a sense of childlike wonder.
As the mismatched group assembles a chronology of their overlapping stories, Jessie recalls Roberto mentioning that Albert Einstein would be in 1921’s New York City. If anyone can help untangle the mysteries of time, it’s him. With the Foxshire family’s help, the crew sets its sights on unraveling the mystery at the heart of their travels.
Much like the Magic Tree House series, Morse Code, Book Three of the Land, Sea, and Air series by Sue C. Dugan, balances whimsy with a little history lesson, respecting the complexities of its ideas while keeping a brisk pace toward another suspenseful cliff-hanger. Middle-grade readers eager to puzzle out myths and mysteries lost to time will find Morse Code, along with the series as a whole, both rewarding and wildly entertaining.
