Jason Chen learns of a strange and powerful machine lurking in his neighbour’s backyard. Mrs Bryant is supposed to be weird, but she buys fish and chips from his parents’ café so he thinks she can’t be too bad. But Mrs B has a secret. And when she says she can’t succeed in her dangerous mission without him, Jason agrees to join her for a ride in her Time Banana.
They travel back to the 1860s, with the Great Fire of Brisbane looming. Knowing what they do about the Present, do they dare to tinker with the Past? It’s a thrilling adventure neither of them—or you—will forget…
Links
to the illustrator Dave Charlton’s website
eNews 39: Anna Bartlett’s interview with Duncan Richardson about Jason Chen and the Time Banana
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
This is a well-written and compelling Junior/YA novel likely to appeal to children, particularly boys, who like adventure and have an interest in history. Its themes of racism and bigotry are as universal and relevant as ever, and are likely to resonate with Australian youth today, given the multi-cultural country we live in.
– Robyn Bavati
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
Young Jason Chen, a Chinese-Australian boy from Oxley in Brisbane, is intrigued like all his friends and neighbours by a ‘Big Banana’ in the backyard of a neighbour known as Mrs B. It turns out to be a time machine designed by her and her husband, which enabled them to go back to Brisbane in the 19th century. Her husband died in one of those trips into the past, but she now introduces Jason to the machine and call on his help. With his Chinese background, to go back with her to Brisbane of December 1864 to warn the residents, of Chinatown in the Albert Street area, led by her friends Ah Sing, of the fire which she knew from history was to occur.
Jason, a typical 21st Century schoolboy, finds Brisbane of 1864 quite an experience, and his adventures in the strange setting are well-conceived and old Brisbane is made to come to life. This would be a good read for young readers ages 8 to 12 which can help make the past more realistic in a novel manner.
– John D Adams, Reading Time