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Adaptations
-
form
y
Tomorrow, When the War Began
( dir. Stuart Beattie
)
Australia
:
Ambience Entertainment
,
2009
Z1623916
2009
single work
film/TV
science fiction
Seven teenagers camp in a remote and idyllic location deep in the countryside. But that night, they see the sky filled with military aircraft, and return home to find their houses deserted and the locals detained in the showground. Escaping detection, the teenagers form themselves into a guerilla unit, hoping to prevent the invading Coalition Nations from bringing any more troops in by destroying the only bridge to nearby Cobbler's Bay, where the troop ships are moored.
-
form
y
Tomorrow, When the War Began
( dir. Brendan Maher
)
Australia
:
Ambience Entertainment
ABC Television
,
2016
8570775
2016
series - publisher
film/TV
'When their country is invaded by a large hostile force, a group of teenagers fight for their family and homeland. Based on the era-defining novels by John Marsden.'
Source: Screen Australia.
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For AC: Year 10 (NSW Stage 5)
Duration Four to six weeks
Curriculum Summary
Find a summary table for Australian Curriculum: English content descriptions and NSW Syllabus outcomes for this unit.
Themes
Day of the Girl, discovery, heroism, invasion and occupation of Australia, just war, maintaining moral values even in war, resistance, security, self-discovery, storytelling, survival, teenage gangs, war
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Literacy, Personal and social
Cross-curriculum Priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia
Notes
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Selected in December 2004 by the Australian public in an ABC poll as Australia's 31st favourite book.
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Dedication: To my dear sister Robin Farran: so much admired.
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Number 37 on the Better Reading's 2022 Top 50 Kids Books
Number 36 on the Better Reading's Top 50 Kids Books 2023
Affiliation Notes
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This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has Japanese, Chinese and Korean translations, and has an Asian-Australian character, Lee, of Thai and Vietnamese heritage.
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Preppers and Survivalism in the AustLit Database
This work has been affiliated with the Preppers and Survivalism project due to its relationship to either prepping or prepper-inflected survivalism more generally, and contains one or more of the following:
1. A strong belief in some imminent threat
2. Taking active steps to prepare for that perceived threat- A range of activities not necessarily associated with ‘prepping’ take on new significance, when they are undertaken with the express purpose of preparing for and/or surviving perceived threats, e.g., gardening, abseiling.
- The plausibility of the threat, and the relative “reasonable-ness” of the response, don’t affect this definition. E.g., if someone is worried about climate change and climate disasters, and they respond by moving from a riverbank location in Cairns, or to a highland region of New Zealand, this makes them a prepper. If someone else is worried about brainwashing rays from outer space, and they respond by making a tinfoil hat, that makes them a prepper.
3. A character or characters (or text) who self-identify as a ‘prepper’, or some synonymous/modified term: ‘financial preppers’, ‘weekend preppers’, ‘fitness preppers’, etc.
As a tier two work, this text has been identified as key to prepping in a broader, more conceptual relationship. These texts have been classified as ‘key’ prepper-adjacent texts that are important to prepping, even if they themselves are not about prepping or do not include preppers. These texts have been identified in the database through various means such as interviews with preppers, scholarship on preppers, and online prepper forums.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
“Then Something Started Growing in the Emptiness” : Revisiting the Lost Child in the Bush in Australian Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction
2023
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Storying Plants in Australian Children's and Young Adult Literature : Roots and Winged Seeds 2023; (p. 247=270)'In colonial Australian children’s literature, the desire to exert control over the land, its inhabitants, and the construction of a national identity has been a central concern, exemplified in the narrative of the lost child in the Australian bush. The lost child trope offers a reflection of “Australian anxiety” (Pierce, The Country of Lost Children: An Australian Anxiety. Cambridge University Press, 1999), symbolising the troubled negotiation in integrating European ideals onto an Indigenous landscape (Pierce, The Country of Lost Children: An Australian Anxiety, xii. Cambridge University Press, 1999); this is heightened when the lost child is female. Colonial texts place deviant female characters as being subsumed by the bush as a culmination of concerns about national identity and gender roles. This chapter explores the colonial tradition of representation of the girl and the bush as entities to be feared and dominated through A Little Bushmaid by Mary Grant Bruce and Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner. It considers how contemporary Australian Young Adult texts rewrite the lost child in the bush trope through the complex symbolic relationship between the girl and the bush in Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden and The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina. The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf reclaims a focus on Indigenous land, identity, knowledge, and narrative, returning to Indigenous roots.' (Publication abstract)
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Nature and Its Elements : Reading Patterns in Dystopian Texts
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Beyond the Dark : Dystopian Texts in the Secondary English Classroom 2020; (p. 127-159) -
'It Affects Us' : Teaching Dystopian Texts Sensitively
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Beyond the Dark : Dystopian Texts in the Secondary English Classroom 2020; (p. 64-84) -
'Dystopia' : A History of the Genre in (and) Australia
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Beyond the Dark : Dystopian Texts in the Secondary English Classroom 2020; (p. 8-34) -
Tomorrow, When the War Began at Twenty Five : A Conversation with John Marsden
Beth Dolan
(interviewer),
2019
single work
interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , March vol. 34 no. 1 2019; (p. 18)
-
[Review] Tomorrow, When the War Began
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , May vol. 38 no. 2 1994; (p. 30)
— Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began 1993 single work novel -
[Review] Tomorrow, When the War Began
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 9 no. 3 1994; (p. 33)
— Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began 1993 single work novel -
Bushwalk into a Dark Adventure
2008
single work
review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 28 December 2008; (p. 15)
— Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began 1993 single work novel -
[Review] Tomorrow, When the War Began
1994
single work
review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 8 no. 2 1994; (p. 54)
— Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began 1993 single work novel -
[Review] Tomorrow, When the War Began
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 7 no. 4 1993; (p. 17)
— Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began 1993 single work novel -
150 Years 150 Books 150 Words 600 Entries 10 Winners
2004
single work
column
— Appears in: The Newsletter of the Australian Centre for Youth Literature , October no. 3 2004; (p. 8-12) The aim of the Save This Book competition was to nominate a book from the last 150 years, from a list of 150 titles, and explain why (in 150 words) why it should be saved from a tidal wave. Winners' submissions are included. -
Sharing Tomorrow, When the War Began in the Classroom
2005
single work
column
— Appears in: Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults , Summer vol. 13 no. 4 2005; (p. 36) -
Five of the Best Teen Reads
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 2 January 2010; (p. 10) The film adaptation of Tomorrow When the War Began will appear in 2010. -
Asian Invasion for Film of Marsden Classic
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Age , 14 August 2010; (p. 12) -
Write of Passage
2010
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 21-22 August 2010; (p. 6-7)
Awards
- 2000 winner CYBER Awards — Older Readers
- 1995 winner West Australian Young Readers' Book Award — Older Readers
- 1995 winner West Australian Young Readers' Book Award — Avis Page Award
- 1995 commended Children's Peace Literature Award
- 1995 winner KOALA Awards — Secondary
- Bush,
- Country towns,