Tom's mum has had breast cancer. Since the mastectomy, she has become very conscious of everything she eats - mostly healthy drinks she makes from fruits and vegetables and drops from a herbal medicine. She and Tom have come to visit her mother, who lives in the Smithfield area of London. There is something odd about the relationship between the two women, and as tension mounts, Tom finds himself crossing a mysterious time gap that appears in his grandmother's basement. On the other side, he is in early 18th Century London, amongst a group of freaks - 'monsters' they call themselves - and they see Tom as a freak too because he is invisible to them. His adventures when he is on the other side of the gap are remarkable, exciting, and quite believable, but it is his relationship to his ill mother, their closeness, and his growing up to the extent of being able to understand her mood swings and needs that is the reason for including the book in this list. There are parallels with his world and the 18th Century world he visits, and the two come together in imaginative and unexpected ways. An excellent first novel from an author with great promise.