Strandee

Time travel #2

by David McRobbie

Mum and Cara are haunted by the past in more ways than one. Mum and Cara are back in the 21st century and with them is Steven Plumtree, the blacksmith's apprentice they met in the 19th century. they now have to try and explain their time-travel adventure to Dad and Craig and, of course, Steven. Steven must come to terms with 21st-century life - telephones, cars, television, aeroplanes, flushing toilets - and this isn't going to be easy. How will Cara and Mum explain Steven's presence, particularly when there is so much interest from the 'in' girls at Cara's school and then, after a series of strange events, tabloid reporter Sylvia Dare, and the army. Will Jethro and his trusty sidekick, Grigor tomolfski, manage to rescue Steven from the hustle and bustle of modern life, and return him to his own time, before the truth about Steven is discovered? Mum and Cara hope so. Ages 11+

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2003

About the author

David McRobbie is a full-time writer and lives in Brisbane. David is the author of Flying with Granny, Prices, and Mandragora, which was short-listed for the 1992 Children's Book Council of the Year Award for Older Readers. David's most recent titles, Schemes, Wages of Wayne, This Book is Haunted and Timelock were published in 1993.

Reviews

[Kindred Spirit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strandee is a 20 year old YA time travelling book. Usually when I read an older book like this, especially one where I am well past the target age range, I don't give it a rating, because I feel I can't be objective enough. But I feel pretty confident that I would have felt the same way if I'd read this book as a teenager.

Years ago, I read the novella this book is the sequel to and I remember enjoying the novella then. However, I don't think this longer format worked as well. It jumped all over the place with different threads of the story, which was a fairly simplistic stranded time traveller story, and then wrapped up very quickly with no real emotional punch to the ending.

I also felt like there was a lot of causal sexism and racism in the book.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strandee is a time-slip comedy / romance involving a boy from history accidentally arriving in modern times. The comedy is derived solely from the "fish out of water" trope and is a bit stale and dragged out. The cast also seemed somewhat predictable. I might have enjoyed it more if I had known that it was actually a sequel (and read the books in sequence).