Found

Chip is another missing kid from the plane and a new friend of Jonah’s. By the end, Chip and Jonah are best friends and trust one another absolutely. Chip foils Jonah as a character. Where Jonah does not worry himself about things he cannot change, Chip concerns himself with everything, whether he can alter it or not. Whereas Jonah has known he is adopted his entire life and had time to process it (or not), Chip’s life before learning about his adoption is full of normal teenage concerns, such as thinking Jonah’s sister is cute. After the reveal, Chip starts down a path of uncertainty. He had never thought he belonged with his parents, but because he suppressed those feelings, they come to the forefront after he discovers he is adopted. He takes on a persona of “helplessness and hopelessness” (35), which resolves into anger and determination. Chip embodies the theme of “Who am I?” and stops at nothing to find the truth. He dives into investigation, only stopping when he is forced to when the research files are deleted from his computer.

As the circumstances surrounding Chip’s adoption become more dangerous, his determination falters. Fear takes over, and Chip struggles to move forward. With Jonah’s help, he overcomes his new fear; by the end of the story, Chip realizes he can face anything with friends at his side. Jonah helps when Chip is too scared, and the fact that Chip needs Jonah allows Jonah to set his own fears aside.

Katherine is Jonah’s adoptive sister and another foil. At the beginning of the story, she is Jonah’s annoying little sister, and he thinks of Katherine as she was a few years ago: “with pudgy cheeks and those goofy-looking pigtails” (18). By the end, Jonah thinks of Katherine as family without reservations, and she learns to work seamlessly with her older brother.

In contrast to Jonah’s unconcerned attitude, Katherine is the type to take charge. When she, Chip, and Jonah are faced with fearful or impossible concepts, Katherine remains calm and finds solutions. When Angela disappears in Chapter 20, Chip and Jonah cannot fathom what to do next. Katherine decides they will call the other survivors and ask if they have had similar experiences. She also thinks quickly and gets results. In Reardon’s office, she knows there will not be enough time to memorize the file, so she takes pictures.

Katherine’s greatest quality is loyalty. She is always there to help Jonah and Chip during the investigation. In Chapter 6, Katherine tells Jonah she does not know who she is either and needs to decide if she will be a basketball player or a cheerleader. Jonah pokes fun at Katherine being a cheerleader for the next several chapters before realizing that she can “throw herself so wholeheartedly into someone else’s cause” (225). Katherine offers the support of an entire cheer squad.

When Daniella McCarthy is not at the conference, Katherine does not think twice before posing as Daniella to join Chip and Jonah’s group. She follows the boys into a dangerous situation. At the end, Katherine refuses to let Chip get sent to the past alone and is thrown back in time. Though she is not one of the missing kids and the time-travel battle is not her fight, Katherine makes it her business to protect Jonah and Chip.

Angela is the first character to have her life disrupted by time travel. She serves as the missing link between Jonah, Chip, and their origins. When she and the three children are together in the library, time shifts around them, allowing JB and Gary to enter the area of damaged time. JB brings Angela in on the secret of time travel, and she becomes a key player in the book’s climactic confrontation.

Angela is the only person Chip, Katherine, and Jonah trust, aside from each other. She provides explanations about how time travel works shortly before Jonah, Katherine, and Chip travel to the 15th century. In the end, Angela remains in the time hollow with JB and the other missing kids, and it is unclear what becomes of her.

JB is from the future, where he works to “enforce the laws of time travel” (290). Jonah assumes JB is on their side in the final confrontation because JB helped him before, but JB turns out to be a reluctant antagonist. He wants to send Jonah and the other kidnapped children back to where they belong to fix the ripples in time, but he feels badly because doing so will remove the kids from the lives they know. Throughout the story, JB provides Jonah, Katherine, and Chip with critical information to keep them safe from Gary and Hodge. JB sent one of the anonymous letters to Jonah, Chip, and the other kids, which jumpstarted the book’s main conflict.

Hodge is “a short enthusiastic man with wiry hair” (233). He poses as a Social Services agent to lure the kidnapped kids into the cave at the conference. Hodge is from the future, where he works for Interchronological Rescue. He and Gary stole Jonah and the other kids from history to provide wealthy families with famous children.

Hodge is both a catalyst for the book’s conflict and an antagonist. He is responsible for one of the mysterious notes the kidnapped kids received. Along with JB, Hodge represents the choice given to the children in the final chapters: live in the past or the future.

Gary is Hodge’s partner at Interchronological Rescue. In contrast to Hodge, Gary “was much bulkier” (242); he is the muscle to Hodge’s brain. Gary is ruthless when it comes to getting the kidnapped kids to the future. He talks a group of kids into untying him in the cave and proceeds with the age reversal even after Katherine reveals that she is not Daniella. JB sends Gary and Hodge to time prison at the end of the book, and it is unclear what happens to them.

James Reardon is the FBI operative in charge of keeping the missing plane a government secret. He has a “smooth, silky voice” (78) that easily turns threatening when the secret is in danger of being exposed. Chip and Jonah first find Reardon’s name on a sticky note that may have been stuck to Chip’s adoption file. Later, Reardon’s name becomes associated with Jonah’s adoption, one in a list of strange coincidences linking Jonah and Chip to the kidnapped kids. 

Jonah’s mother is protective of both her children. She views Jonah’s adoption as a miracle because she thought it would take years to adopt a child. Jonah’s mother has always been open about his adoption and answers his questions, even though they make her uncomfortable. She worries about Jonah becoming a teenager and wondering where he came from, and she goes out of her way to make sure Jonah knows he is loved as much as Katherine, her biological child. When Jonah and Katherine go back in time at the book’s end, Jonah’s mother is at the conference. She does not know her children are in danger, which is ironic because she spends the entire book being so protective of Jonah and Katherine.

Jonah’s father discovers Reardon’s association with Jonah’s adoption and suggests meeting with Reardon to get more information. Jonah’s father is also protective of his children and pushes back when Reardon delivers veiled threats. Jonah’s father is last seen at the conference and, like his wife, ends the story not knowing Jonah and Katherine have gone back in time.