Countdown to Yesterday
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
James wishes he could go back in time. Back to when his mum and dad were together, when he had one home, when his family laughed and climbed hills and went to the movies.
After meeting the enigmatic Yan, a girl who looks at the world differently, James discovers time travel might not be impossible after all.
But if James can live forever in one of his six favourite memories, which one will he choose?
‘One part time travel, two parts cake and a whole lot of nostalgia . . . it’s impossible not to love this book.’ REECE CARTER, author of A Girl Called Corpse
‘This smart, lively, retro-cool book about looking back, falling forward and changing your own story will leave you smiling.’ FIONA HARDY, CBCA Notable author of How to Make a Movie in 12 Days
In a place where retro Australian Woman’s Weekly birthday cakes, old Commodore computers, chaotic rideshare vehicles of the future and spacemen all collide, Countdown to Yesterday is a contemporary novel touched with philosophical and science fiction ideas for young readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Channeling personal experiences of emigrating from China to Australia, Marr (All Four Quarters of the Moon) examines one 11-year-old's desire to turn back time in this thoughtful read. James Greenaway is sent adrift when his parents announce that they're getting a divorce. Within days, he's splitting time between his white-cued father's familiar house and his Chinese Australian mother's dilapidated new apartment. Worse, his parents are having him decide which parent he wants to spend his weekends with. At school, James befriends Yan Chen, a Chinese immigrant classmate who reads obsolete 40-year-old computer programming manuals for fun. When Yan says she invented a time machine, James scoffs. As he increasingly takes solace in memories of perfect days with his parents, however, he starts to believe that living in the past would be preferable to the present. But to do that, he'll need Yan's help. A subplot surrounding a school baking competition that relies on classic Australian cake constructions leads to laugh-out-loud antics and touching insights. Discussions of time travel lean more toward wistful fantasy than hard science, and the tweens' desire to bend time provides a framework through which James gains new perspectives on his own memories. Ages 8–12.
