Discover, or rediscover, a 'time machine' which takes the reader back into the past. It depicts the history of one particular piece of land in Sydney from 1788 to 1988 through the stories of the various children who have lived there. This new edition includes a new timeline, which traces the history of the characters in the book, as well as the history of Australia, and is right up-to-date with reference to the Australian government's apology to Indigenous Australians. Ages 6+.

Reviews

A glimpse into life on the same piece of Australian land as it changes from rural to urban over a 200-year period. Moving in ten-year jumps from 1988 back to 1788, each double-page spread surveys the same plot from the viewpoints of children who live there. Each boldly states: ``This is my place,'' describes what life is like then, and includes an intricately drawn map, labeled to help readers spot the changes that have taken place in the area. The young people come from all sorts of families, wealthy as well as working class. Quite a bit of historical and cultural information is painlessly conveyed through this intriguing format; even environmental concerns are explored as the quality of the creek's water declines because of polluting waste from a tannery and woolen mill. In the last entry, readers meet young Barangaroo and his family, Aboriginal inhabitants of the land, and the book ends pensively and somewhat ironically with his grandmother's words, ``We've always belonged to this place . . .For ever and ever''--but readers know what the future holds. One comes away from the book with the feeling that Australia's people are an ethnically diverse, hard-working bunch who inhabit a country that developed in similar ways to the United States. Rawlins' lively, colorful crayon drawings surround the text supplying period details and evoking each child's sense of belonging in this not-so-unique place. Specialized and universal at the same time, this complements the Provensens' Shaker Lane (Viking, 1987) and Renata Von Tscharner and Ronald L. Fleming's New Providence: A Changing Cityscape (HBJ, 1987). A book that merits and rewards close scrutiny. --Ellen Fader, Westport Public Library, CT