Countdown to Yesterday
Countdown to Yesterday
- Subject
- Social Themes - Friendship
- Age
- 6-8 years
- Format
- Hardcover
- Pages
- 272
- Publisher
- Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
- Size
- 14.0 cm × 20.9 cm
- ISBN
- 9781665948517
Rebecca Stead’s The List of Things That Will Not Change gets a “Space Oddity” sci-fi twist in this “exceptionally lovely and uplifting” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) middle grade novel about one boy’s journey to go back in time to prevent his parents’ divorce.
The present is the last place James wants to be. Since his parents have separated, he’s been living two different lives and neither of them add up to the great one he used to have. He thinks about his Top Six memories and wonders if he can go back.
During National Science Week, James meets the enigmatic Yan, a girl who looks at the world with x-ray eyes, and discovers that time travel might be possible after all. The two budding scientists’ quest to restore James’s lost past brings them into contact with retro Australian Women’s Weekly birthday cakes, old Commodore computers, chaotic rideshare vehicles of the future, and spacemen.
But as they get closer to their goal, James is forced to consider that his favorite moments from his personal history may not be as perfect as he remembers them.
The present is the last place James wants to be. Since his parents have separated, he’s been living two different lives and neither of them add up to the great one he used to have. He thinks about his Top Six memories and wonders if he can go back.
During National Science Week, James meets the enigmatic Yan, a girl who looks at the world with x-ray eyes, and discovers that time travel might be possible after all. The two budding scientists’ quest to restore James’s lost past brings them into contact with retro Australian Women’s Weekly birthday cakes, old Commodore computers, chaotic rideshare vehicles of the future, and spacemen.
But as they get closer to their goal, James is forced to consider that his favorite moments from his personal history may not be as perfect as he remembers them.
About the author
Shirley MarrAuthor
Shirley Marr is the author of Little Jiang, Fury, Preloved, A Glasshouse of Stars, All Four Quarters of the Moon, and Countdown to Yesterday. Shirley lives in Perth, Australia, with her family. Learn more at ShirleyMarr.net.
Data provided by BiblioShare.
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What reviewers said
Mom’s announcement that she’s finally going to enter his school’s cake competition is ruined for cake-loving, eleven-year-old James when she also reveals that she and James’ father are getting divorced. As James bounces between his dad’s house and his mom’s tiny apartment, both of his parents are determined to make new happy memories, but James just wants to return to his favorite memories of when his family was together. When he works up the nerve to tell Yan, an incredible inventor who is his new (and only) pal at school, that he wants to build a time machine and live permanently in one of…
When his parents separate, 11-year-old James’s entire life turns upside down. He now has to swap between two homes and navigate shifting relationships with his parents, each of whom are trying to find themselves again after this major change. As his mother embraces mismatched color schemes and his father begins to rebuild a motorbike, James, now lonely at home as well as at school, meets Yan. The two budding scientists develop a friendship, and Yan agrees to use her time machine to send James back to one of his favorite memories. But James starts learning that memories aren’t always…
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…
An Australian boy embarks on a time-traveling mission in an attempt to return to simpler times.
Eleven-year-old James Greenaway’s Chinese Australian mom and white dad are separating, and the news makes him feel like an untethered astronaut in space. He can’t help but fixate on happy memories from his past as he grapples with having two homes. One day, a change in James’ routine leads him to meet Yan, a Chinese girl whose love of retro computers and unique way of thinking open up the possibility of time travel. All he must do is decide on which of his six favorite memories he’d like to return to. But did things really happen the way he remembers? Could he have reasons to stay in the…
An exceptionally lovely and uplifting exploration of change, memories, and relationships. (Fiction. 8-12)
