Frankie Fish shakes his head at finding himself sitting at a car race next to his 85 yr old Grandad, where a younger version of Frankie’s Grandad is giving his all on the race track. What’s even weirder is they are both hoping young Grandad will crash!

Sound strange? Let’s back up a bit to the very beginning. Frankie loves pulling pranks, nearly as much as his best friend Drew Bird does. When a prank in a final school assembly goes incredibly well, but results in an incredible (but funny at the time) wrong, the boys are banned from seeing each other in the school holidays. Disaster!

Frankie hasn’t heard the bad news yet. He will be spending the summer at his grandparents in what he dubs (old people jail). His grandmother is lovely but Grandad is a surly grouch. When Grandad is away from his ‘strictly forbidden’ shed one day, Frankie can’t resist.  He finds photos of a race car driver and a weird looking suitcase. Grandad’s been lying to him all along. Inside the suitcase, Frankie finds a computer… sort of.

A mind-blowing adventure results. Grandad has been working for decades on his time machine. He has a long-winded boring name for it which Frankie quickly changes to a ‘Sonic Suitcase’!

As a huge fan of Doctor Who, Back to the Future and Terminator, Frankie knows the risks in time travel and the terrible time conundrums that can result. Just like in these classic movies, muddling with things in Grandad’s past can incredibly upset the future – even wipe out Frankie’s existence!

Which is how Frankie ends up sitting at the race track with his Grandad, hoping his ‘other’ Grandad will crash. Frankie and Grandad Alfie will never be the same.

A great start to a funny series about Frankie Fish, his best mate Drew Bird and the adventures and pranks they pull through time.

Full of fun and b&w illustrations, this story lightly explores a grandson/grandfather relationship, with themes of regret, ambition, love, and appreciating family and friendships.

Fabulous for young Tweens.

Author – Peter Helliar

Age – 7+

Teacher’s Notes here

(Family, Time travel, Action, Adventure, Love, Historical, Humour, Magic, Grandfather, Grandad, School Holiday, Prank, Racing, Crash, Magician, Tricks, Jokes, Funny)