The Extraordinary eTab of Julian Newcomber

Twelve-year-old Julian Newcomber knows he has a fitting "what the smart folks call apropos" last name. His family moves constantly due to his Dad's quirky inventions, which have a habit of misbehaving and blowing up the family home.

Now firmly settled in a peaceful, close-knit community, Julian believes he's finally found a home, and a safe haven from his father's calamities. Until a vaguely familiar 20-year-old man walks out of the bedroom closet, and identifies himself as future Julian. Turns out that his father's latest contraption, the eTab, alters time. So grown-up Julian decided joyride into the past and dropped his cell phone on a Civil War battlefield.

With his own eTab too low on Cucumium to take him all the way back to his own time, grown-up Julian needs young Julian to help him go back to the Civil War and retrieve his cell phone.

The two Julians break rules, break curfews, and break into the Intermediate School in an effort to locate some Cucumium (though they're not exactly sure what it is), so they won't be forced to share the room and fight over the top bunk forever. Oh, and if grown-up Julian stays, it could, as a side effect, pollute the natural timeline and rewrite history as they know it. No pressure.