Max’s Royal Adventure by Wendy Leighton-Porter

Max’s Royal Adventure

Shadows from the Past Book 16

by Wendy Leighton-Porter.

Know More

The rightful King of England is on the run. With a price on his head and in fear for his life, Charles Stuart is desperate to escape his pursuers, the Parliamentarians who executed his father. A rich reward has been offered for his capture and everyone is on the lookout for the young man. Nowhere is safe. How will he ever manage to flee the country without help?
Never fear, the Guardians of Time have a Special Agent lined up for the job … but he just so happens to be a cat!

“Wendy Leighton-Porter loves history and she loves to share her passion for the past with young readers. Her recent Middle-Grade novel, Max’s Royal Adventure: Shadows from the Past, book 16, takes young readers on another time-traveling jaunt with the feline hero, Max. The adventure is enough in itself, as the plot thickens with page-turning intensity and the characters are so realistic you feel as if you are part of their lives and the setting is so aptly described that you can feel the cold rain and the acorns falling down on your head. But there is so much more to this story and the other books in the series. Young readers are being introduced to history through the eyes of a very adventurous, time-traveling cat. I loved this story from start to finish – education and adventure go hand in hand with these books.”

READERS’ FAVORITE BOOK REVIEWS

“Wow! What a history lesson for young and old alike! I truly disliked history when I was back in school so didn’t learn a lot. However, that has changed and now with kids at home that I am teaching I am learning as much history as them, if not more! This book is truly a wealth of information! Wendy has done a great job of interweaving Max into a story that really did happen. Yes, there were some fictional aspects but Wendy explains all those at the end. The truth far outweighs the fiction. Incredibly well done… This is an EXCELLENT book. Kids learn history without even knowing they are learning. Thank you SO much.”

L. POMEROY, parent, USA

“Again, through the exploits of the endearing Tonkinese cat, Max, Wendy Leighton-Porter has brought to life a significant historical event in a tale that should appeal to all ages. The essence of the gripping story of Charles Stuart’s evasion of capture by Cromwell’s Parliamentary forces is all here. Entertaining embellishments added by (and including) Max, such as being pelted with acorns by a talking squirrel, will help to hold the younger reader’s attention. The writer also makes clever use of the cat’s own curiously un-feline personality (he hates climbing trees) to recreate real characters from the past: the future King Charles II, Captain Careless, the Penderel brothers and others. In conjunction with the author’s ‘Shadows’ series, the Max books are, I believe, quite unique in being both enjoyable and educational where history is concerned.”

OLIVER EADE, author

A Word from the Author

The year is 1651, and a future King of England is on the run, knowing that he faces certain death if he falls into the hands of his enemies – the Parliamentarians who have already executed his father. With a price on his head, following the Royalists’ defeat at the Battle of Worcester, the young Charles Stuart is now desperate to make it to the coast so that he can flee the country, but the journey is fraught with danger and he cannot manage it alone. An unexpected encounter shakes him to the core when he discovers that he has been sent help… in the form of a cat. The cat in question is none other than talking Tonkinese, Maximus Lancelot, feline hero of the Shadows from the Past time-travel adventure series.

Sent back into the past on this special mission by the mysterious Guardians of Time, Max must use all his persuasive powers to convince Charles that he isn’t a demon and that he’s there to aid the young man’s escape from his pursuers. As Charles is forced to put his fear and disbelief aside and accept help from this unlikely saviour, a touching friendship begins to develop between the two of them.

The famous incident when the future Charles II hid in an oak tree, to avoid the patrol of Roundheads who came looking for him, might have turned out very differently had it not been for Max’s assistance. In fact, it was the cat’s idea in the first place. Staying one step ahead of the enemy, Max safely delivers the prince into the hands of another agent of the Guardians of Time in order to complete the next leg of his journey. Job done, the heroic feline is free to return home, but not before Charles promises to reward his new friend, should their paths ever cross again. Is that likely? Who knows? Where Max, the time-travelling, talking, Tonkinese cat is concerned, anything is possible.

(Wendy Leighton-Porter, 2021)