Mark Shirrefs – John Thomson: The Girl from Tomorrow (Hodder & Stoughton 1990)
Mark Shirrefs – John Thomson: Tomorrow’s End (Hodder & Stoughton 1991)
„The future of the Earth is in all our hands.”
These are the words of the Mother of the Reconstruction that every child must learn in the 31st century. In 2500, they don’t know exactly why, but the Great Disaster occurred and the northern hemisphere became uninhabitable. It was through great efforts that life was saved in the south. Since then, people have learned from their (countless) past mistakes. Now they live in peace with the nature, nothing can be heard except for the sound of birds and insects, there is no hum of engines – internal combustion engines had gone the way of the dinosaurs. That’s when they invent the first time machine, which they want to use to find out the causes of the Great Disaster. However, the experiment goes awry, and Alana finds herself in the „primitive and dangerous” past, 1990.
This is how the story of The Girl from Tomorow begins. However, after Alana, with the help of Jenny and her family, manages to stop Silverthorn and return to her own time, she is faced with the fact that the future has been changed because of their actions. They must try to change things back or life on Earth is over. However, their former opponent, Silverthorn, is not only cruel, but also extremely cunning and tries to turn the situation to his own advantage.
The Girl from Tomorrow was an Australian sci-fi series for kids in the ’90s. The series has been nominated for several awards and has won three of them internationally in the youth category. It was also airing in Hungary. The authors of the series made a book version of it. The story of the second book/season was much more complicated and had a more serious tone than the first one, and in addition to the personal development of the characters, the main theme was the importance of environmental protection. I really like that, in addition to the exciting scenes and actions, the story drew attention to the problem of environmental pollution and the depletion of Earth’s resources. I had a hard time getting this sequel, as it was not published in Hungarian and the English book was only released in Australia, but I am very glad that I finally got to read it.
