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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Vacationing [...] in a cottage at an old homestead in rural Australia, Dee and Alex unravel a long-ago tragedy that resurfaces after Kenny discovers human bones on the banks of a precipitous gorge. Kenny, who normally behaves like a sweet, 240-pound three-year-old, begins to have bizarre episodes that Dee and Alex eventually realize are possession by Baily--a frighteningly angry escaped convict whose written denouncement of a man named Arnold (like their landlord) they find hidden under the cottage floor. It develops that several other people are also inhabited by spirits from the past, seeking retribution from one another--especially from the present-day Arnold's ancestor, who was responsible for a brutal massacre of aboriginal [sic] people in the gorge.'
Source: Kirkus Reviews (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/victor-kelleher-2/bailys-bones/). (Sighted: 25/07/2017)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also braille.
Works about this Work
-
Ghosts of Australia Past : Postcolonial Haunting in Australian Adolescent Mystery Novels
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: International Research in Children's Literature , December vol. 8 no. 2 2015; (p. 185-200) 'This essay explores the use of haunting in two Australian adolescent mystery novels, Victor Kelleher's Baily's Bones (1988) and Anthony Eaton's A New Kind of Dreaming (2001). Both novels mobilise the mystery genre as a means to interrogate Australia's colonial past and neocolonial present. The function of the spatial environments in which the novels take place and the construction and function of haunting in each novel is interrogated. It is argued that haunting is figured as a disruptive process whereby the repressed colonial scene intrudes on the present, such that the haunting the teenage protagonists experience encourages them to enquire into the past. While on the one hand the novels advocate a renewed interrogation of Australia's past in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the present, a closer reading of the texts reveals that the novels fail to sustain their postcolonial endeavours. Thus, while adolescent mystery fiction is a genre that can be mobilised in the name of postcolonial enquiry, the difficulty of doing so effectively is illustrative of the wider challenge of achieving decolonisation.' (Publication summary) -
y
Re-Visiting Historical Fiction for Young Readers : The Past through Modern Eyes
New York (City)
:
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
,
2011
Z1886683
2011
single work
criticism
'This study is concerned with how readers are positioned to interpret the past in historical fiction for children and young adults. Looking at literature published within the last thirty to forty years, Wilson identifies and explores a prevalent trend for re-visioning and rewriting the past according to modern social and political ideological assumptions. Fiction within this genre, while concerned with the past at the level of content, is additionally concerned with present views of that historical past because of the future to which it is moving. Specific areas of discussion include the identification of a new sub-genre: Living history fiction, stories of Joan of Arc, historical fiction featuring agentic females, the very popular Scholastic Press historical journal series, fictions of war, and historical fiction featuring multicultural discourses.
Wilson observes specific traits in historical fiction written for children — most notably how the notion of positive progress into the future is nuanced differently in this literature in which the concept of progress from the past is inextricably linked to the protagonist's potential for agency and the realization of subjectivity. The genre consistently manifests a concern with identity construction that in turn informs and influences how a metanarrative of positive progress is played out. This book engages in a discussion of the functionality of the past within the genre and offers an interpretative frame for the sifting out of the present from the past in historical fiction for young readers.' (Publisher's blurb)
-
Living History Fiction
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , vol. 20 no. 1 2010; (p. 77-86) 'During my research into historical fiction for children and young adult readers I came across a range of texts that relied on a living or lived experience of history to frame the historical story. These novels were similar to the time-slip narrative; however, not all examples used the traditional convention of time-slippage. I wanted to bundle these novels together - 'time-slip' novels included - as examples of 'living history' narratives because they appeared from the outset as a distinct literary form requiring particular reading strategies.
These texts, which I will refer to as Living history novels, require readers to align uncritically with modern perception. Readers are persuasively invited to assume that the modern characters' perception of the past is authentic because it has been formed by a lived experience of history. In Living history novels, readers are positioned to perceive both the strengths and weaknesses of past and present times, ultimately reconciling the two in a present that faces chronologically forwards. Modern focalising characters in Living history fiction place modern perception in a superior relationship to that of the past.
This sub-genre of historical novels is distinctive in its strong and consistent modern character focalisation and point of view. The Living history novel creates a confluence of past and present, be it physically or psychically. Characters are variously conveyed from a generalised present, or past, to an explicit historical period or event. The Living history novel is distinctive in its intense character introversion, quest journey and self-discovery. The most important outcome of the living history experience is that characters learn something significant about themselves. Because the story is about the modern character's quest and self realisation, the past is consistently perceived from their point of view. Modern characters are transported in time and readers are only rarely invited to see the past from a past point of view' (Author's abstract). -
Aboriginal Australia : A Century of Attitudinal Change
1995
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Children's Literature : An Exploration of Genre and Theme 1995; (p. 35-52) -
Untitled
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Horn Book Magazine , Mar/April vol. 66 no. 2 1990; (p. 207)
— Review of Baily's Bones 1988 single work novel
-
The Yahoo and the Serious
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 21 January 1989; (p. 13)
— Review of The House of Tomorrow 1988 single work novel ; Baily's Bones 1988 single work novel ; Laurie Loved Me Best 1988 single work novel -
Kids' Books for Christmas
1988
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 107 1988; (p. 26-28)
— Review of Drac and the Gremlin 1988 single work picture book ; Regina's Impossible Dream 1988 single work children's fiction ; Bill 1988 single work children's fiction ; The Best-Kept Secret 1988 single work children's fiction ; Answers to Brut 1988 single work children's fiction ; The Inheritors 1988 single work novel ; Baily's Bones 1988 single work novel ; Beyond the Labyrinth 1988 single work novel -
The living past rises to haunt us
1988
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 29-30 October 1988;
— Review of Baily's Bones 1988 single work novel -
Untitled
1989
single work
review
— Appears in: Booklist , 15 November vol. 86 no. 6 1989; (p. 670)
— Review of Baily's Bones 1988 single work novel -
Untitled
1990
single work
review
— Appears in: Horn Book Magazine , Mar/April vol. 66 no. 2 1990; (p. 207)
— Review of Baily's Bones 1988 single work novel -
Living History Fiction
2010
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , vol. 20 no. 1 2010; (p. 77-86) 'During my research into historical fiction for children and young adult readers I came across a range of texts that relied on a living or lived experience of history to frame the historical story. These novels were similar to the time-slip narrative; however, not all examples used the traditional convention of time-slippage. I wanted to bundle these novels together - 'time-slip' novels included - as examples of 'living history' narratives because they appeared from the outset as a distinct literary form requiring particular reading strategies.
These texts, which I will refer to as Living history novels, require readers to align uncritically with modern perception. Readers are persuasively invited to assume that the modern characters' perception of the past is authentic because it has been formed by a lived experience of history. In Living history novels, readers are positioned to perceive both the strengths and weaknesses of past and present times, ultimately reconciling the two in a present that faces chronologically forwards. Modern focalising characters in Living history fiction place modern perception in a superior relationship to that of the past.
This sub-genre of historical novels is distinctive in its strong and consistent modern character focalisation and point of view. The Living history novel creates a confluence of past and present, be it physically or psychically. Characters are variously conveyed from a generalised present, or past, to an explicit historical period or event. The Living history novel is distinctive in its intense character introversion, quest journey and self-discovery. The most important outcome of the living history experience is that characters learn something significant about themselves. Because the story is about the modern character's quest and self realisation, the past is consistently perceived from their point of view. Modern characters are transported in time and readers are only rarely invited to see the past from a past point of view' (Author's abstract). -
Aboriginal Australia : A Century of Attitudinal Change
1995
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australian Children's Literature : An Exploration of Genre and Theme 1995; (p. 35-52) -
Ghosts of Australia Past : Postcolonial Haunting in Australian Adolescent Mystery Novels
2015
single work
criticism
— Appears in: International Research in Children's Literature , December vol. 8 no. 2 2015; (p. 185-200) 'This essay explores the use of haunting in two Australian adolescent mystery novels, Victor Kelleher's Baily's Bones (1988) and Anthony Eaton's A New Kind of Dreaming (2001). Both novels mobilise the mystery genre as a means to interrogate Australia's colonial past and neocolonial present. The function of the spatial environments in which the novels take place and the construction and function of haunting in each novel is interrogated. It is argued that haunting is figured as a disruptive process whereby the repressed colonial scene intrudes on the present, such that the haunting the teenage protagonists experience encourages them to enquire into the past. While on the one hand the novels advocate a renewed interrogation of Australia's past in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the present, a closer reading of the texts reveals that the novels fail to sustain their postcolonial endeavours. Thus, while adolescent mystery fiction is a genre that can be mobilised in the name of postcolonial enquiry, the difficulty of doing so effectively is illustrative of the wider challenge of achieving decolonisation.' (Publication summary) -
y
Re-Visiting Historical Fiction for Young Readers : The Past through Modern Eyes
New York (City)
:
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
,
2011
Z1886683
2011
single work
criticism
'This study is concerned with how readers are positioned to interpret the past in historical fiction for children and young adults. Looking at literature published within the last thirty to forty years, Wilson identifies and explores a prevalent trend for re-visioning and rewriting the past according to modern social and political ideological assumptions. Fiction within this genre, while concerned with the past at the level of content, is additionally concerned with present views of that historical past because of the future to which it is moving. Specific areas of discussion include the identification of a new sub-genre: Living history fiction, stories of Joan of Arc, historical fiction featuring agentic females, the very popular Scholastic Press historical journal series, fictions of war, and historical fiction featuring multicultural discourses.
Wilson observes specific traits in historical fiction written for children — most notably how the notion of positive progress into the future is nuanced differently in this literature in which the concept of progress from the past is inextricably linked to the protagonist's potential for agency and the realization of subjectivity. The genre consistently manifests a concern with identity construction that in turn informs and influences how a metanarrative of positive progress is played out. This book engages in a discussion of the functionality of the past within the genre and offers an interpretative frame for the sifting out of the present from the past in historical fiction for young readers.' (Publisher's blurb)
-
In Context : Some Recent Australian Writing for Adolescents
1989
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature in Education , September vol. 20 no. 3 1989; (p. 151-163)
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