Sam, Shannon and Zak aren’t overly fond of history, but when a train trip as part of history camp goes strangely wrong, they find themselves having to live it.
Finding themselves in 1899, the three have to learn to adapt to life without cars, television, or even Coke. They need to find food, shelter and jobs to stay alive until they can figure out a way to get back to their own time.
Return Ticket is a time travel adventure which will appeal to young adult readers. Set in pre-Federation Australia, it also offers insight into the life, social structure and even politics of the time. The teen characters find themselves involved in the federation debate, caught up in racism and violence, and questioning their own places in both the society they are in and the one to which they belong.
Intriguing reading.
Return Ticket, by Warren Flynn
Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2003