Countdown to Yesterday by Shirley Marr

An exceptionally lovely and uplifting exploration of change, memories, 

and relationships. Kirkus Star review

Out of the blue his parents sit him down and tell him they are getting a divorce and mum is moving out tomorrow. James had no idea this was coming. His life and whole world are thrown into disarray. Something is going to happen though because each chapter is in the form of a countdown (you knew this from the title) to "launch" but a launch of what. Interspersed between the countdown chapters James shares his precious memories of all the good times with his mum and dad. He shares six wonderful family events such as climbing a steep hill together to see the view; dinner at a revolving restaurant; going to the movies and the day it rained so much that they all stayed together and built a blanket fort in the lounge room.

"Time and place and circumstances are complicated. The future is too huge and unknowable. Even the present is overwhelming. It would be much easier to go back to one moment in the past and exist in that forever. Safe and predicable and perfect."

Memories, though, are slippery things. James has a new friend named Yan. She asks him to recall the pattern on the little tickets that go with cakes from the famous Birthday cake book. James made these tickets and they are used as part of a school fund-raiser where parents select one cake from the book to make for a display and a competition - the prize is a gold apron! James is sure the pattern on these little cards is of cupcakes but when he looks at the cards again he discovers it is a pattern of cake slices. His memory was faulty.

Yan is a very clever girl. She has a keen interest in learning and also in old technology. I laughed over some of the titles of the books she borrows from the discarded section of her school library. Yan calls this the Book Departure Lounge. Some of these titles even seemed familiar to me because in the 1980s I worked for a company that sold computer reference books. Here are a few Program Catalogue for your TRS-80 Colour computer, 1980; Practical interfacing projects with Commodore computers, 1985; Start programming with the electron, 1983; and The Book of Atari Software, 1983.  Yan also talks about the way computers used to come in colours - I remembered that when she explained:

"Did you know computers used to come in flavours? ... Blueberry, grape, tangerine, lime and of course strawberry."

I think Yan is my favourite character in this book. It made me laugh to read that she loves the typewriter cake. It is interesting the way her manner changes, though, when she is with her mum - this simple plot point could make an excellent class discussion topic. (The same thing happens to James' mum when she speaks Chinese). Yan is also a wise girl. Here are a few of her words of advice:

"Life is about choices. Once you figure that out, things get easier."

"You know I was saying the mind is a mysterious machine."

"Sometimes you need fresh eyes. A different point of view."

"As I have said numerous times, James, knowledge is interconnected ... Just like life and the world and the universe and the metaverse and you and me."

"I've also learnt it pays not to be predictable."

"... the biggest poverty in the future will be time poverty."

I need to make a special mention of the wonderful school secretary - Mrs Tagliatelle. I would love to know more about her. 

"Mrs Tagliatelle always has her lunch at twenty minutes after twelve. She puts the phone straight to voicemail and lets me follow her to the staffroom, where we sit down at the corner table. I always have a sandwich and Mrs Tagliatelle always has leftovers from last night's dinner. She brings in extra so that I can taste her home cooking."

I loved all the references to this classic book birthday cake book. I have never owned a copy but I have certainly enjoyed perusing it when visiting friends. I well remember a teacher making the koala cake for a colleague and for myself I really wanted the castle with the ice cream cone towers. Another friend recently sent me a photo of the train cake she made decades ago side by side with the one made last year by her daughter. In this story they talk about the rocket cake (but I couldn't find a photo); the rabbit cake; and the wonderful oven/stove top cake.

I wrote this story for my son, a child of divorce and for all the children out there going through a similar situation. And of course I put in lots of nice cheery things like David Bowie and strawberry mochi and The Women’s Weekly Children’s birthday Cake book! Shirley Marr

In the US this book has a different cover and I read one reviewer who mentioned a QR code at the back of the book so you can find out more about the cakes - sadly this was not part of the Australian copy I borrowed from a school library. 

When you share Countdown to Yesterday with your class of upper primary students you will want to include the David Bowie song Major Tom. Here is one possible video version. And if you are reading this book at home you will most certainly want to make one of dad's deconstructed desserts - they sound wonderful. Here are the Scholastic teachers notes for Countdown to Yesterday. 

I seem to have saved one of the best books from the 2025 CBCA Younger Readers Notable titles for last. The storytelling and plot structure in this book has blown me away. At about page 250 of the 276 pages I wondered if everyone/anyone else had stood on their own mountain of books and wanted to shout out about Countdown to Yesterday so without planning to read the reviews I Googled the title and the words 'book review' and YES this book has travelled far and wide to huge acclaim including a Kirkus Star review and a glowing one in the School Library Journal and also one from the UK reviewers at LoveReading4Kids. Surely this book will be included on the 2025 short list which will be announced later this month. 

Here is a quote from the CBCA 2025 Younger Readers Notable titles judges' comments:

A stunning novel that will resonate with anyone navigating change in their life.

At once charmingly quirky and emotionally authentic, Countdown to Yesterday is, above all, a lovely ode to family love, friendship, and finding your way through unsettling change. LoveReading4Kids

The depths of emotion within the main characters, combined with a strong nostalgic feel, create a work that will stay with readers. VERDICT A moving story with a pleasing twist ending. School Library Journal

It does deal with some difficult issues for children going through a divorce but does so in a carefully considered way, exploring the feelings of all concerns and weaving this within a well-crafted narrative. Just Imagine

This is a well-crafted story in which reality and the imagination are cleverly intertwined to result in a clear message – enjoy and appreciate the present. Books for Keeps

It is a rapid page-turner that subtly reveals the necessity of memories, but also how they are seldom exactly as they are recalled, therefore can’t be trusted. Kids' Book Review

Shirley Marr is another wonderful writer with an amazing talent who deserves to be celebrated and awarded heaps of prizes. I loved her previous books:

A Glasshouse of stars

Glass house of stars was the winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year for Younger Readers in 2022 and the WA Premiers Book Awards for Writing for Children 2021. It was also nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2022 and shortlisted for the 

Queensland Literary Award - Children’s Book 2022

All Four Quarters of the Moon

All Four Quarters of the Moon was awarded a CBCA Notable Book in 2023

I am so excited to see this new picture book coming in May, by Shirley Marr published by Walker Books Australia and illustrated by Michael Speechley.

The Dragon on the Train by Ben Brooks illustrated by George Ermos

"They'd taken his Spark. They'd closed in on him and stolen the music from inside his head. After that, the colour had gone from the world. What did that mean? Would he never truly hear music again? Would the rest of his life be spent hearing only the tick of the clock and the echo of his footsteps?"

Elliot's precious and loved grandmother Ellen has died. Elliot is deeply grieving. He is angry. He is lost. He is sure the world will never be the same. Elliott spent huge amounts of time with his grandmother because his mum was always working to make enough money for rent and food. Grandma Ellen was a cellist and over the first ten years of his life Elliott had been exposed to music of every genre. 

"She liked the lilting folk of The Dubliners, the doom laden guitars of Slipknot, the bubbling synths of Kraftwerk. She liked music written hundreds of years ago and she liked music written yesterday. She liked music that, to Elliott, barely even sounded like music."

But now Elliott cannot bear to hear any music. He decided to banish all music from his life. He stops playing his violin and fills his brain with distracting nonsense words whenever he hears music. Sixteen days after Grandma Ellen died, though, Elliott finds a mystery ticket under his pillow. This is a train ticket and late that night a small dragon appears in his room. 

"It had a sticky-out belly, dull scales and a tail that flicked back and forth behind its head. A glass lantern that cast long diamonds of yellow light across Elliot's carpet hung from the end of its tail. On its head the dragon wore a battered straw hat that sat a jaunty angle. The hat wobbled precariously above a pair of electric-blue eyes ... "

Kimorin has arrived as a guardian to help Elliot (or Olio) with the series of train journeys that he is about to embark on. Elliot has no idea that he is about to see Beethoven as a young boy, spend time on the Titanic on the night of the sinking (take a look at The Ship of Doom by MA Bennett), meet his ancestors and even travel to his own future. Along the way Elliott and Kimorin are pursued by monstrous creatures called Hush-Hush. The Hush-Hush hunt for and take the Spark from humans.

" ... that special thing inside you that lets you feel when you hear music. It's the thing that turns a song from a few random old sounds into an emotion."

This book was such a surprise. The story feels familiar, the story of a child processing their grief over the loss of a loved one, but there is so much gentle humour, a wonderful cheeky dragon who you will love and one very moving chapter that made me cry. I also learnt about an historical event - The Singing Revolution.

At 7:00 PM on 23 August 1989, approximately two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined hands, forming a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, spanning 675 kilometres, or 420 miles. It was a peaceful protest against the illegal Soviet occupation and also one of the earliest and longest unbroken human chains in history. Estonian World

Huge thanks to Beachside Bookshop for the advance copy of The Dragon on the Train which will be published in June 2023. Readers who loved The Polar Express are sure to enjoy this deeper story about train journeys and our need to process grief. 

"His eyes filled with hot tears. For the first time since he'd been given the news about his grandma, he let himself explode. He let himself cry, loud and ugly. He let himself scream, face buried in his pillow. And he let his body thrash madly on his mattress like a fish out of water."

Companion books:

The Train to Impossible Places

The Boundless

The Silver Arrow

On the Blue Comet

The Dark Blue 100 Ride bus Ticket (this may be difficult to find but it is fabulous)

Eight Keys

I previously enjoyed The Impossible Boy by Ben Brooks:

The Impossible Boy

Very Rich by Polly Horvath

Please take this warning very seriously - do not read this book if you are hungry. You have probably heard of unrequited love? Well this book is full of unrequited meals! I had to stop reading around page 225 and make myself a delicious lunch because, like the hero of the story Rupert, I was starving. 

Starving - not really - but Rupert is starving. His family are poor, dirt poor. Rupert is lucky to eat one paltry meal each day. Mrs Brown can only serve the large family oatmeal flavoured with kitchen scraps scrounged from bins around their small town. Rupert is thin and very cold. He has no coat, worn out sandshoes and he is forced to wear his three shirts as he trudges to and from school. The writing in this book is so good that I felt cold (even though the day here was sunny and warm).

As the story opens, Rupert sets off for school. The streets are oddly quiet and after his long cold journey he discovers the school is closed. On the way home his jacket is caught on the swinging gates of a mansion in the rich part of town. Rupert finds himself whisked into Christmas day with the huge and very eccentric Rivers Family. It should be the day all his dreams come true - an abundance of delicious food, games with fabulous prizes and moments of genuine laughter and happiness but right at the end of this extravagant day everything goes horribly wrong. 

What Rupert does not realise, though, is that some of the crazy family members feel sorry for the way things turn out and so over the coming months each of them, secretly, take Rupert out of his home and school with the intention of treating him to a wonderful day. Unfortunately though, these amazing days never seem actually work out and each time Rupert is left hungry, puzzled and disappointed. 

Publisher blurb: Ten-year-old Rupert Brown inadvertently finds himself spending Christmas with the wealthiest family in town and is astonished to discover a world he never knew existed. Rupert lives with his parents and many siblings in a small house in the poorest section of Steelville, Ohio. When he spends Christmas with his classmate Turgid Rivers, he is offered all the food he can eat, and the opportunity to win wonderful prizes in the family games—prizes he hopes to take home so he can share his Christmas bounty with his family. But after he loses everything in the last game, Rupert resigns himself to going home empty handed. Feeling secretly guilty, all of the adults in Rivers family try to make it up to him by taking Rupert on one unlikely adventure after another, embroiling him in everything from time travel to bank robberies. But can anything he experiences make up for what he has lost? Deftly blending magical realism with heartbreak, hope, and a wide cast of eccentric characters, Polly Horvath weaves a tale that is darkly funny and deeply poignant. Very Rich is a bittersweet and quirky story that celebrates the unique nature of human experience.

I would love to book talk this book with a group of Grade 5 or 6 students. I think I would read `page 32 and 33 - the Christmas feast. This book will also be perfect for fans of A series of Unfortunate Events and Roald Dahl (especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) books. 

Horvath is at her odd, arch best here—generous with her wry observations of people and their awkward relationships and foibles. Kirkus

Horvath is having a ball with this story. It’s fast-paced and filled with witty asides, creative scenarios, and a ridiculously entertaining cast. She pulls from Dickens, but Rupert’s parents have qualities akin to Roald Dahl’s despicable adult characters, and Uncle Henry’s time machine is a whirring cardboard box reminiscent of Dorothy’s flying house and the hot-air balloon in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Plus, there is a gravity-defying restaurant scene similar to the laughing-gas chapter in Mary Poppins. Quill and Quire

After reading this book you may want to make a funnel cake. I had no idea about this but they sound delicious.

Find the Recipe here 

When I was growing up, my family had a tradition of visiting the county fair every year. I loved riding the ferris wheel and viewing all of the livestock, but what I looked forward to the most was all of the fair food! I loved the deep fried Oreos, corn dogs, kettle corn, and best of all, the funnel cakes! There really is nothing better than a hot funnel cake, dusted with powdered sugar.

Here are a few text quotes to give you a flavour of this writing (and I hope to also entice you to read this book!)

"There were three bedrooms in the house. One for the boys, one for the girls, and one for Mr and Mrs Brown. In the boys' and girls' bedrooms, the younger children slept in the beds and the older ones slept under them. Rupert shared the underneath of a bed with John and Dirk."

"He could feel the chocolate ooze all over his tongue and run down into his stomach, where it awoke a hunter so vast, it was as if the chocolate were a flame thawing Rupert's frozen insides and igniting the appetite therein."

"He ate the roll and then saw the butter pat and he stuck that whole into his mouth and let it melt in savory wonder all over is tongue. He'd never had butter. The only kind of fat the Brown's ever saw was lard. He like lard but the butter was simply out of this world."

"Tomorrow we're going to the library to get library cards and then we'll get books of stories to read. But tonight I'll tell you one of mine."

Time Slip, Time Travel or Moving through a Portal to another World

Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds

A colleague asked me today for books where the characters move into another world. Of course there are the obvious choices of Alice in Wonderland and Narnia but this teacher, who is working in a school library, needed other ideas.  I started my hunt and came up with quite a few. I'd love to hear from you in the comments if you have other books which match this topic.

I will begin with three Picture Books:

The Tunnel by Anthony Browne 

Zathura by Chris van Allsburg 

The Hero of Little Street by Gregory Rogers

My friend also reminded me about this breathtaking wordless trilogy:

You can see a video of Journey; and Quest; and here is the Walker Books trailer for Return. Here is a set of teachers notes compiled by Aaron Becker. Just Imagine have a set of ideas. 

Here are some series which may still be in your school or local library:

Time warp Trio series by Jon Scieszka (see above)

The Time Travelling Cat series by Julia Jarman

The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osborne

Whatever After series by Sara Mlynowski

The Timeslip series by Belinda Murrell

Now for some Middle Grade and senior Primary level novels.

The time traveller and the tiger by Tania Unsworth

Olive of Groves by Katrina Nannestead

With my Knife by Andrew Lansdown

Tom's midnight garden by Philippa Pearce

Howl’s moving castle Diana Wynne Jones

The secret library of Hummingbird house by Julianne Negri

Tricky Nick by Nicholas Johnson

The Root cellar by Janet Lunn 

Cicada summer by Kate Constable

The Time tree by Enid Richmont

The four seasons of Lucy Mackenzie by Kirsty Murray

The Children Next Door by Gene Ure

The Future Trap by Catherine Jinks

The Shadow Guests by Joan Aiken

Stig of the dump by Clive King

The 13th Floor by Sid Fleischman

The Word Hunters by Nick Earls

The puzzle ring by Kate Forsyth

On the blue comet by Rosemary Wells

King of Shadows by Susan Cooper

The Train to impossible place by PG Bell

When you reach me by Rebecca Stead

A clock of Stars by Frances Gibbons

The Halfmen of O by Maurice Gee

The Song from somewhere else by AF Harrold (Mature readers only)

The girl who Circumnavigated Fairy Land by C. Valente

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins and sequels

The Griffin Gate by Vashti Hardy

The Riddle of the Tumpalar by Judy Bernard- Waite

Fast forward by Jenny Pausacker

Timeslip by Diana Chase

A wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

Somewhere around the corner by Jackie French

Timesnatch by Robert Swindells

The other aspect of this question would be to make an exploration of the way the characters move through time - is it through a door; a cupboard; on a train; in a time machine; by touching a special object; travelling in a lift; or through the back of a cave? Your students could write a time travel or a time slip story where they invent a different way for the characters to move through time. Perhaps you remember an old book by Emily Rodda called Finders Keepers where the boy moved into the television screen.

Finally I will mention this very old book.  Someone asked about it on a Facebook group recently and I must stay parts of the plot do still linger with me.  This is long out of print and it is most unlikely to still be held in a school library but it might give you a "blast from the past." I have put the two covers. Sorry one is rather out of focus - it was the best image I could find. My memory is that this was a very funny story with a crazy woolly mammoth and a terrific time machine. 

The Future Trap by Catherine Jinks

Friday Old Favourite

"Everyone knew about the terrible epidemic raging in the Costrmax Cluster. Everyone knew there was no cure, no defence, no pattern to its deadly advance."

"As you're probably aware, genetic engineering has enabled the human race to colonise a great many planets where we would have been killed off pretty swiftly ... It's allowed us to specialise in ways that would once have been impossible."

Paula is snatched from her garden late one day and taken to another planet called Gnosis-10 and it is 5000 years into the future. Why? In this future world genes are manipulated to create "humans" suited to different environments and different jobs. The researchers need some genetic material from an Atomic Age human. Paula is only a child. The officer called Julz has made a mistake. Paula will need to be held captive for up to twelve months and because her body will change over time she can never return to her home, her family, her friends or her real life.

Luckily one person is on her side. In this future world no one speaks human languages like English. 

"Sellian felt strongly about his job, because he was very good at it. He knew that. As a professional communicator he'd spent his life wandering through space-ports and shuttledocks and interplanetary conferences, enduring the discomfort of space travel for the sake of a varied and interesting career. sometimes his job simply involved translating from language to language ... but sometimes it became more complex."

There are wonderful invented names and places in this book:

• Sellian is a Roh - his home planet is called Roh
• Julz, the Ironclad is an Arean - he is on a three year tour of duty to Gnosis-10
• Llassa Bomet is a Marin - he is the Project manager
• Ty Porrix is a Pacifan - he is a journalist working for Co-Stellar Productions

I saw this book in a charity book bin. I had a strong memory of really enjoying this Science Fiction story when it was first published in 1993 so I picked it up to read. I read the whole book in one sitting and thoroughly enjoyed this invented futuristic world. I do hope you can find a copy in a library perhaps. I highly recommend this book for readers aged 11+.

The final scenes in this gripping book might remind you of an old movie called Logan's Run from 1976.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Here are some other books by Catherine Jinks I have talked about previously. If you can find copies of her Pagan series I highly recommend them for readers aged 13+.

Theophillis Grey and the Demon Thief

A Very Unusual Pursuit

A Very Peculiar Plague

Tricky Nick by Nicholas J Johnson

Nick is not good at sticking with hobbies, sports, or learning musical instruments but finding a magic trick on a box of cornflakes - a magic trick that works - a magic trick that actually impresses his parents - Nick is hooked. He sets off to learn more magic tricks. This is one hobby that he won't abandon.

His mum is a librarian so she tells him to go to SEVEN HUNDRED AND NINETY THREE POINT EIGHT.  Do you know what that means?  She's sending him to the magic books in the library. On the shelf Nick finds the perfect book. It is old and slightly hidden between other books which tells us this is not just a magic book it is THE magic book - the one Nick needs to make his dream come true. But someone else wants this book - The Encyclopedia of Amateur Magic by J. Mesno. The man who wants it calls himself Mr E. He is a verbose man who (Nick will discover) is very dangerous.

I started reading Tricky Nick on a train journey yesterday. The story was okay but it was just meandering along. I was waiting for a jolt, a shock, a moment of delight, an internal question mark followed by an exclamation mark.  Then along came a young girl called Trixie and the world slightly shifted. The magic she performs at the meeting of The Brotherhood of United Magicians is spectacular. Nick is blown away. Clearly Trixie is a girl to watch but why is Mr E so dismissive of her obvious talent?

Later in the story I found these lines.  I really enjoy the intrusive author voice which Nicholas Johnson uses here - it made me want to race through the book to discover the exciting and weird things that are promised.

"Okay. Let's just stop right here so I can remind you of two things. First, I told you this book was going to take twists and turns and you'd be scratching your head wondering how it could all be true. So don't say I didn't warn you. Second, you chose to read this book. So if it's all too weird and confusing for you, you can put it down now. But if you think you can handle the truth, then you can keep on reading. I promise you, things are going to get more exciting (and weirder)."

Tricky Nick will be published by Pan Macmillan on 25th August, 2020. Readers aged 10+ will enjoy this quirky story of magic, time travel and friendship. Readers may also want to investigate the idea of chaos theory and The Butterfly Effect. Time travel might be fun but travelers from the future must take care in our world. This book is also filled with real magic tricks which do work because the author is actually a professional magician. Nicholas says this book is all true (probably not) but perhaps some parts are autobiographical?

Here is a summary from the front cover of my advance copy (thanks to Beachside Bookshop) of Tricky Nick: "This story is full of magic tricks and secrets, intrigue, humour, heart, time travel, baddies, heroes, adventure ... "

This is also a book with some terrific words: stultiloquent, chrestomathy, athenaeum, enigmatic, chicaney.

You might also like to read more about female magicians. In this book, Nicholas J Johnson mentions Adelaide Herrmann, Celeste Evans, and Lady Frances. Here is a recent picture book biography about Adelaide Herrmann published by Walker Books (Candlewick).

Take a look at this picture book about The Butterfly Effect:

Would follow this book with these:

Disappearing Act

Small Change for Stuart

Olive of Groves and the great slurp of time by Katrina Nannestad illustrated by Lucia Masciullo

Olive of Groves and the great slurp of time follows on from the riotous Olive of Groves.  This new installment can stand alone but to fully appreciate this crazy school and especially the diabolical Pigg McKenzie and the batty school headmistress Mrs Groves I do recommend reading the first book if you can.

As this story opens Basil Heffenhuffenheimer arrives at Mrs Groves School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers. What a wonderful name!

"Olive continued to stare.  She took in the lederhosen, the collarless white shirt, the big brown hiking boots with woolly white socks, the canvas rucksack and the green felt hat.  The hat was decorated with a beautiful tan and black feather that might well have been plucked from the tail of a pheasant."

Who is Basil?  He is a time traveler.  He has just been taking a hike in the Black Forest in Germany in 1857 and now he has arrived at this crazy school. Mrs Groves explains this is perfectly acceptable because the school is also for time travellers and she used to have some textbooks about this one of which she eventually locates - "The concise guide to Time Travel". Time travel is a two way process achieved using clocks - one running forwards and one running backwards.  Olive has the perfect backwards running clock so it seems everything is set for some time travelling adventures. Unfortunately (you knew I was going to say that!) Pig McKenzie has returned.  He has disguised himself as Pigg McKenzie and convinces Mrs Groves he is a different fellow but Olive is very suspicious.

"Anyone can see that he is the same Wicked Pig as Ever He Was.  Placing an extra g in his name does nothing to change the fact that he is a Nasty, Vile Creature Who Thinks of Nobody but Himself. Why, this very minute, he is probably Scheming and Plotting to Get Rid of Me."

This book contains all the elements I enjoyed in the first.  Wordsworth and his thesaurus style of talking.  "How annoying ... frustrating, irritating, infuriating and exasperating", The boys who like to blow everything up (you will gasp at some of their timing and the ensuing chaos), Chester the rat who loves buttons along with some new friends such as Basil himself and Num Num the dinosaur, not to forget the consistently devious Pig or Pigg McKenzie.

As for the time travel you will find yourself in the Jurassic era, Elizabethan England and even the Black Forest in 1857.  The word slurp in the title is something I will leave you to discover for yourself but you might have guessed something is not quite right when I mentioned Num Num the dinosaur.

You know from the start all will be well for Olive and her friends, of course, but the true enjoyment comes from the mayhem, crazy disasters and fun you will experience with our intrepid heroes in this rocket fueled adventure.

The four seasons of Lucy McKenzie by Kirsty Murray

"I reckon you really could be twins anyway,' said Tom. 'Sometimes one twin is bigger than the other. We should call them Big and Little."

Lucy is the youngest child in a family of five.  Her two older siblings are adults.  "Lucy McKenzie was an afterthought. By the time she had arrived ... Jack and Claire were almost grown-up."

Claire is living in Paris but as the story opens she has been involved in a serious accident and so mum needs to rush to France.  Meanwhile dad has an important contract which involves visiting mines in remote Queensland so Lucy is sent to stay with her elderly aunt - Aunty Big.

The four seasons of the title refers to a special room in the old home of Avendale.  Each wall has a mural with a scene showing the different seasons of the landscape around the house.  "Lucy wanted to like the room, but there was something about it that made her uneasy."

The Four seasons of Lucy McKenzie is a simple timeslip.  Using the murals Lucy visits the family of her relations starting with 1939.  While there she helps with a major bush fire, saves Alice from a flood, finds some special friends and makes discoveries about her own heritage.

Here is a detailed review.  Here is the web site for the illustrator.  You might also enjoy Playing Beatie Bow, Cicada Summer, The Ivory Rose or Tom's midnight garden.  This book is also part of the NSW School Magazine bookshelf for 2014.  I am not a huge fan of timeslip stories but this one had a terrific setting, very like able characters and most important of all - an emotional ending.