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Countdown to Yesterday
by Shirley Marr
Published by Puffin (Penguin Books Australia)
ISBN 9781761340598
For ages 9+
Time travel is something many of us would love to do, especially James when he discovers his parents are getting a divorce, He has to go through all the emotions and physical changes like adjusting to living in two homes. His dad's home on the hill which is where he lived with both parents which is where he thought they were all happy. He also has to adjust to living part of the week in the depressing looking new to them, that his mum has chosen.
James wishes he could go back in time.
He would love to go back to when his mum and dad were together, when he they all lived together in one home.
He would like to go back in time to when his family laughed and climbed hills and went to the movies and enjoyed pizza together and he first heard David Bowie's music.
James has his favourite memories, six of them and so wants to go back to them. He wishes he could time travel Then he discover that his friend Yan has a different way looking at things. She can time travel and wonders if he can to and if so, which memory would he like to go to most of all.
At first he goes back to 1971 and discovers something strange - the milk diet which he doesn't think people really liked. Then he also discovers time when Commodore Computers were the computers of choice.
This thoughtful and heartfelt story is full of emotion, memories, excitement, expectations, family love and friendships, beautifully written for the age of 9 years and over. written with warmth it is filled with discovering the past in the present.
The author
Shirley Marr is a first-generation Chinese Australian living in Perth and an author of young adult and children's fiction, including YA novels Fury and Preloved, and children’s novels Little Jiang, A Glasshouse of Stars, All Four Quarters of the Moon and Countdown to Yesterday. She describes herself as having a Western mind and an Eastern heart. She likes to write in the space in the middle where they both collide, basing her stories on her own personal experiences of migration and growing up in Australia, along with the folk and fairy tales from her mother.
