As I mentioned in our recent Reading Resolutions post, I find myself in a reviewing crisis. Things haven’t improved with the New Year, though I have read lots of books, which can never be bad. I have about 5 half-written GeekDad posts and haven’t recorded a single video; I’ve been lacking motivation or conviction. But then I read Countdown to Yesterday by Shirley Marr and found it such a high-quality children’s book that I knew I had to tell the world and smash out a review!
Hopefully, this will break the New Year block!
What Is Countdown To Yesterday?
Shirley Marr is first generation Australian Chinese, and the two main characters in her novel, James and Yan, are also Australian Chinese. James is trying to cope with the break-up of his parents. The split came out of the blue, and now he finds himself moving between homes, unsure of where he fits.
Countdown to Yesterday is essentially a fable to help children who find themselves in similar circumstances. It also contains time-travel, cake baking, and some lovely ruminations on the importance of friendship. At its heart is a meditation of memories and an examination of whether our memories, particularly those of children, are exactly as we recollect them.
As for many of these novels, Yan and James are misfits; they’re the geeky kids and certainly James’ dad is a GeekDad. Drawn together by their isolation, James confides in Yan that how he would love to go back in time to when things were better. Yan, says she can help. She has a time machine…
Why Read Countdown To Yesterday?
This is a beautifully constructed book. Whilst James’ sudden discovery that his mother is moving into a new flat, feels a little abrupt, it does at least drop us straight into the central dilemma of the novel. James can’t understand why his parents have split. Through a series of memories, he can see that whilst things weren’t always ideal, he lived in a loving family that should be together.
Over the course of the novel, Yan will help James realize that his memories, and the way he saw his parent’s relationship, were only a singular viewpoint. Alongside this, he will see changes in his parents’ behavior that make him realize, that perhaps their newfound space might be better for them all. James learns that whilst his new situation is difficult, and that there are awkward things to navigate, it is not the unmitigated disaster he thought it might be. It’s an important point well-made. That family life can continue, even when families become more complicated.
The novel’s delicate subject matter is delivered via a very entertaining tale. There’s a school cake-baking competition (featuring the legendary Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book – which I had a copy of growing up) lurking in the background of the book, that enables Marr to emphasize the trials and tribulations of parenting, differences in parenting style, and the pressures parents are put under.
And that perhaps is the strongest part of the novel. When I look at my children, I’m not sure they recognize or understand that my wife and I are separate people with hopes and wishes that go beyond, making sure their dinner is on the table, they’ve done their homework, and they get to soccer practice on time. Countdown to Yesterday shows James (and anybody reading) that parents are people too.
The book even opened my own eyes a little. 20 years married, with 3 children, and all the baggage that goes with it, it’s easy to forget that the person at the coalface with you, once danced to electronica, likes to go to art galleries, and had any number of hopes and dreams that probably didn’t include scrubbing boot mud out of the hall carpet. It’s important to check in and make sure you’re not taking one another for granted.
Countdown to Yesterday does what all the best children’s novels do; appeal to adults as much as children. Of my recent children’s book reads it is up there with another Usborne publication, Bad Influence by Tamsin Winter. Whilst I always feel a bit odd, when I sit in a coffee shop, reading a children’s book, I often find they open my eyes in a way adult fiction doesn’t. Shirley Marr and Countdown to Yesterday have done exactly that.
If you would like to pick up a copy of Countdown to Yesterday, you can do so here, in the US (It publishes in the US in June), and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links). It is also available in Australia on January 30th.
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
