Toby Carton Travels in Spacetime

By Charles Foti

Toby Carton is a 12-year-old boy whose father vanished on Halloween when he was 3 years old. Harriet, his mother, hated Halloween after that. She and Toby had to sell the new car and move in with her coworker, Mildred Shumaker, on Lemon Drop Lane. She then purchased an old, rusty clunker that Toby nicknamed Hazel. Book 2 begins a few days after Toby's 12th birthday in late September. Mildred died at the age of 99, one day after Toby's 10th birthday on September 14th. On Valentine's Day, when Toby was 11, his mother never showed up for work. The next day, he realized Harriet and Hazel had also vanished. Toby assumed his mom decided to go look for his long-lost father.
Toby is being hunted by two dragon-like demons, Shockley and Dorgo, who are part of the magic community, secretly known as the Enchanted People. The demons guard the secrets of their community and they see Toby as a threat since the folks on Lemon Drop Lane have allowed him to penetrate their cloistered world. Mrs. Berrycloth has already cast a spell and Toby's memories of the magic will fade away on his 13th birthday.
The second book in the Toby Carton series opens with Toby and his friend, Marcie, being chased into a dark forest by Shockley and Dorgo. Marcie has no idea what is happening, but Toby knows they want to kill them both. Toby's father had been trapped in spacetime for eight years, but Sebastian brought him home two months earlier. Toby is no longer an orphan, but his mother is still missing.
Sebastian Shumaker is an outsider who used to own the local garage. He built a time-machine and a spacetime-portal in the old garage up on the hill. Sebastian vanished in 1977 and his wife, Mildred, always suspected he was still alive. The Enchanted People assumed he was traveling in spacetime.
Forty-three years after his disappearance, Sebastian returned with the help of the Enchanted People of Lemon Drop Lane. They brought him home with a combination of science and magic. Then they sent him back through the portal to find Toby's father, Thomas Carton. Apparently, both of Toby's parents had been sucked into Sebastian's portal on two separate occasions. Sebastian's age was frozen in spacetime at 63, but he is actually a 107-year-old gentleman who is determined to help Toby.
The story unfolds as Toby and Marcie escape the clutches of Shockley and Dorgo and travel in spacetime with Sebastian. The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger where Toby is still in spacetime, but he has found his mother. Harriet has had amnesia and she does not recognize her own child. Toby makes it his mission to restore her memory and climb back into her heart. His next challenge will be to bring his mother back to the present and reunite his family.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09KNGCG4J
• ISBN13: 9798755586214
• Release Date: October 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 108 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"