AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Around the world, millions of people - including many children - are victims of human trafficking. These modern-day slaves often go unseen even in our own cities and towns, their voices silent and their stories untold. In this incredible book, Zana Fraillon imagines the story of three such children, Esra, Miran and Isa. The result is powerful, heartbreaking and unforgettable.
'Esra, Miran and Isa work for the Snakeskin gang, tending to plants in the dark and airless basement of a house they are not allowed to leave. They’ve been told that they belong to the Snakeskins, but Esra knows that she belongs to no one - and she is determined to find freedom. This is a Skellig for this generation; beautiful, magical and with Zana Fraillon’s incredible talent for combining important global issues with extraordinary storytelling.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also dyslexic edition
Works about this Work
-
Know the Author : Zana Fraillon
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) -
Fleeing the Fear and Loathing
2017
single work
essay
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19 August 2017; (p. 22)'How young people respond to trauma and being trapped is explored in five new novels by Australian writers. Some characters are stuck in time and place, others are victims of grief and persecution.' (Introduction)
-
Fleeing the Fear and Loathing
2017
single work
essay
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 19 August 2017; (p. 22)'How young people respond to trauma and being trapped is explored in five new novels by Australian writers. Some characters are stuck in time and place, others are victims of grief and persecution.' (Introduction)
-
Know the Author : Zana Fraillon
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)
Awards
- 2018 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards — Young Adults' Fiction
- 2018 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
- 2018 CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Notable Book — Older Readers
- 2018 nominated Carnegie Medal (UK)