Countdown to Yesterday

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. Agent: Gemma Cooper, Bent Agency. (June)

Correction: A previous version of this review misstated the author's first name.