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y separately published work icon The Bone Sparrow single work   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 The Bone Sparrow
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Subhi's imagination is as big as the ocean and wise as the sky, but his world is much smaller: he's spent his whole life in an immigration detention centre. The Bone Sparrow is a powerful, heartbreaking, sometimes funny and ultimately uplifting hymn to freedom and love.

'Sometimes, at night, the dirt outside turns into a beautiful ocean. As red as the sun and as deep as the sky. I lie in my bed, Queeny's feet pushing up against my cheek, and listen to the waves lapping at the tent.

'Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother fled the violence of a distant homeland, life behind the fences is all he has ever known. But as he grows, his imagination gets bigger too, until it is bursting at the limits of his world. The Night Sea brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories.

'The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie, a scruffy, impatient girl who appears from the other side of the wires, and brings a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it, she relies on Subhi to unravel her own family's love songs and tragedies.

'Subhi and Jimmie might both find a way to freedom, as their tales unfold. But not until each of them has been braver than ever before.' (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

22084849
19567105

Adaptations

The Bone Sparrow S. Shakthidharan , 2022 single work drama

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Hachette Australia , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 5333882411424514871.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 240p.
      Note/s:
      • Publication date: 28 June 2016
      ISBN: 9780734417138
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Disney Hyperion ,
      2016 .
      image of person or book cover 6947197986467350631.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 240p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 1 November 2016
      ISBN: 9781484781517
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Orion ,
      2016 .
      image of person or book cover 2435447290446069895.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 240p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 14 July 2016
      ISBN: 9781510101548
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Orion ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 8442793273912649570.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 293p.p.
      ISBN: 9781510101555, 1510101551
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Disney Hyperion ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 7766909606117910880.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 240p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 7 November 2017.

      ISBN: 9781484781913, 1484781910
Alternative title: Il bambino che narrava storie
Language: Italian
    • Milan,
      c
      Italy,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Corbaccio ,
      2016 .
      image of person or book cover 6224966336070085592.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 250p.p.
      ISBN: 9788867002016, 8867002015

Other Formats

  • Also dyslexic edition

Works about this Work

y separately published work icon Zana Fraillon's The Bone Sparrow : Text Guide Justine McGinnis , Cheltenham : Insight Publications , 2021 23903652 2021 single work criticism
y separately published work icon Zana Fraillon : On 'The Bone Sparrow' Astrid Edwards (interviewer), 2020 19325269 2020 single work podcast interview

'Zana Fraillon's The Bone Sparrow is an exceptional book for young adult readers, and this interview is an in-depth discussion of the themes and structure of the work.

'The Bone Sparrow was awarded the Amnesty CILIP Honour Award, the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Readers, the Readings YA Book Prize, the IBBY Australian Honour Book and was listed on the the CBCA Honour Book. The Bone Sparrow was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the 2017 Prime Minister's Literary Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the Queensland Literary Award and the INKY Awards.'

Source: The Garret.

The Child Lost Beneath History in Zana Fraillon’s No Stars to Wish On and The Bone Sparrow Mark Froud , 2018 single work criticism
— Appears in: Journal of the European Association for Studies on Australia , vol. 9 no. 2 2018;

'This paper discusses some of the theories proposed in my monograph The Lost Child in Literature and Culture. It looks at the importance of the lost child figure in disrupting established narratives of history and culture. Using Fraillon’s two novels I discuss how the child is at the centre of abuses of power and also look at the author’s use of alternative forms of language and communication to counter this. The article locates Fraillon’s narratives within fairy-tale tropes such as a child’s quest, while arguing that such tales have also embodied endemic cruelty towards children. Ancient oral folk tales are entwined in the same narrative as modern media. The EASA Conference focused on the rise of nationalism, and the connections between Europe and Australia. The figure of the lost child is sadly pervasive in both parts of the world, showing the inter-connectedness of all our stories. The practice of Child Migration, referred to in this article, is an example of how lost children have been forcibly removed from Europe to Australia as one facet of a system of control.'

Source: Abstract.

Know the Author : Zana Fraillon Tali Lavi , 2018 single work interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 33 no. 2 2018; (p. 8-10)
Reading The Bone Sparrow, Zana Fraillon's novel set in a detention centre, is a heightened experience; exquisite for its poetic sensibility and distressing for its bleak setting. In it, the child narrator Subhi's mother, Maá, tells him if everyone would listen to the stories deep down inside the earth, we would hear the whisperings of everything there is to hear, and if everyone did that, then maybe we wouldn't all get stuck so much. (Introduction)
y separately published work icon A Conversation with Zana Fraillon Angela Crocombe (interviewer), Melbourne : Readings , 2017 23466836 2017 single work podcast interview

'Hear Reading Kids shop manager Angela Crocombe in conversation with author Zana Fraillon about The Bone Sparrow - the 2017 winner of the Readings Young Adult Book Prize.'  (Production summary)

Driven by Shared Experiences Joy Lawn , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3-4 September 2016; (p. 22)

— Review of The Bone Sparrow Zana Fraillon , 2016 single work children's fiction ; Another Night in Mullet Town Steven Herrick , 2016 single work novel ; Game Theory Barry Jonsberg , 2016 single work novel
[Review] The Bone Sparrow Katharine England , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 27 August 2016; (p. 40)

— Review of The Bone Sparrow Zana Fraillon , 2016 single work children's fiction
[Review] The Bone Sparrow Sharon Seymour , 2016 single work
— Appears in: Reading Time , September 2016;

— Review of The Bone Sparrow Zana Fraillon , 2016 single work children's fiction
[Review] The Bone Sparrow Kel Butler , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Buzz Words , September 2016;

— Review of The Bone Sparrow Zana Fraillon , 2016 single work children's fiction
[Review] The Bone Sparrow Emma Stubley , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Good Reading , August 2016; (p. 57)

— Review of The Bone Sparrow Zana Fraillon , 2016 single work children's fiction
Children Can Often See Light in the Darkest of Places Karen Hardy , 2016 single work column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 19 June 2016; (p. 12)
[Review Essay] The Bone Sparrow Margaret Robson Kett , 2016 single work review essay
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 387 2016; (p. 63)
'Subhi lives with Maa and his older sister Queeny in ‘Family Three’, hoping that the ‘Night Sea’ will bring his Ba back to them. Born in detention to his Rohingya mother after she arrived illegally in Australia, his friend Eli and a kindly ‘Jacket’ make his life one of fitful pleasures amid the uncertainties of camp life. On the other side of the fence, in the nearby community, Jimmie feels besieged by grief following her mother’s death. She needs the comfort of reliving her mother’s stories, which are kept in a treasured book. A mostly absent father and an uncaring brother won’t share them with her; so, since she can’t read her, the stories are lost to her as well. These unlikely individuals meet at a ‘squeezeway’ in the wire, and their mutual needs help them to escape their separate worlds, for a time.' (Introduction)
[Review Essay] The Bone Sparrow Elissa Gershowtiz , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: The Horn Book Magazine , January/February vol. 93 no. 1 2017; (p. 92)
Reading and Empathy Maria H. Alessandrino , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 32 no. 4 2017; (p. 16)

'The term empathy has become part of our everyday dialogue. As our world continues to face significant cycles of change, there is a growing need for people to connect with and understand one another, and reading can play a crucial role in helping us develop into empathetic human beings.' (Introduction)

Know the Author : Zana Fraillon Tali Lavi , 2018 single work interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 33 no. 2 2018; (p. 8-10)
Reading The Bone Sparrow, Zana Fraillon's novel set in a detention centre, is a heightened experience; exquisite for its poetic sensibility and distressing for its bleak setting. In it, the child narrator Subhi's mother, Maá, tells him if everyone would listen to the stories deep down inside the earth, we would hear the whisperings of everything there is to hear, and if everyone did that, then maybe we wouldn't all get stuck so much. (Introduction)
Last amended 3 Jun 2021 15:52:13
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