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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress.
'Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.
'And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.' (Publisher's blurb)
Adaptations
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y
Jasper Jones
2014
2014
Strawberry Hills
:
Currency Press
,
2016
7441879
2014
single work
drama
'Corrigan is a town populated by barnacles: hard shells that clench themselves shut and choose not to know.'
'Charlie Bucktin is a geeky thirteen-year-old living in a country WA town in 1965. He's probably the only teenager who reads books in a town that's sport mad. His best mate Jeffrey Lu is Vietnamese, and isn't having such a good time of things either.
'Jasper Jones is an Indigenous 14 year-old that lives on the outside of town and the wrong side of the tracks. One summer night, Jasper takes Charlie to his secret glade in the bush. Charlie witnesses a terrible discovery and is suddenly embroiled in a plot with more twists and turns than any of the novels he so dearly loves.
'Barking Gecko is thrilled that talented playwright and actor Kate Mulvany will adapt Craig Silvey's multiple award-winning, best-selling novel, Jasper Jones for WA audiences.' (Production summary)
-
form
y
Jasper Jones
( dir. Rachel Perkins
)
Australia
:
Porchlight Films
Bunya Productions
,
2016
8368946
2016
single work
film/TV
On the night that Jasper Jones, a young Aboriginal man and social outcast, shows Charlie Bucklin the dead body of young Laura Wiseheart, Charlie's life is changed forever. Believing Jasper to be innocent, Charlie embarks on a dangerous journey to find the killer, defeating the local racists, facing the break up of his parents and falling head over heels in love as he discovers what it means to be truly courageous.
Source: Screen Australia.
Notes
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This book won the 2011 Australian Publishers Association Best Designed Fiction Book sponsored by Penguin Books Australia.
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Ranked #6 in ABC1's First Tuesday Book Club '10 Aussie Books to Read Before You Die' 2012 voting ballot.
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This book was awarded the inaugural University of Canberra Book of the Year in 2013.
Affiliation Notes
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Associated with the AustLit subset Australian Literary Responses to 'Asia' as the work contains a Vietnamese character.
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This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has a Vietnamese character, and because it has been translated into Chinese and Korean.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille
- Sound recording.
- Large print.
Works about this Work
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Adolescence Adrift : The Lost Child in Contemporary Australian Gothic YA Fiction
2021
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Young Adult Gothic Fiction : Monstrous Selves/Monstrous Others 2021; -
Aboriginal Perspectives in English Classroom Texts
2019
single work
criticism
— Appears in: English in Australia , vol. 54 no. 1 2019; (p. 20-29)'According to the NSW K–10 English Syllabus, all students should engage with ‘texts that give insight into Aboriginal experiences in Australia’. Along with the inclusion of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cross Curriculum Priority, this suggests that texts in English should develop deep understanding of Aboriginal cultures, experiences and perspectives. This project uses critical discourse analysis followed by content analysis, adapted from Lowe and Yunkaporta’s (2013) Cultural Analysis Matrix, to analyse representations of Aboriginal experiences and perspectives in six commonly used classroom texts to ascertain the nature and depth of the Aboriginal voices, experiences and perspectives within each text. This paper argues that texts which include Aboriginal characters and experiences through non-Aboriginal perspectives remain at risk of tokenism and/or shallow inclusion. However, texts which embody and value Aboriginal ways of knowing, doing and being demonstrate a capacity for more nuanced and genuine insights into Aboriginal experiences in Australia.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
-
12 Books Every Australian Should Read
2016
single work
essay
— Appears in: Australian Geographic [Website] , February 2016; 'Take a literary journey to the interior with these 12 must-read Australian books, representing a cross section of Australian literature, meditating on landscape, history and what makes us Australian.' -
Sharon’s Best of 2016
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time , December 2016;
— Review of Jasper Jones 2009 single work novel ; Freedom Ride 2015 single work novel ; Gemina 2016 single work novel ; The Illuminae Files 2015 series - author novel -
Books That Changed Me
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 30 October 2016; (p. 10)
-
Coming of Age in Small-Town '60s Australia
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 2 May 2009; (p. 23)
— Review of Jasper Jones 2009 single work novel -
Dudes with Attitude
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , May vol. 4 no. 4 2009; (p. 21)
— Review of Jasper Jones 2009 single work novel -
Well Read
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 16 May 2009; (p. 26)
— Review of Jasper Jones 2009 single work novel -
Books
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The West Australian , 23 May 2009; (p. 28)
— Review of Jasper Jones 2009 single work novel ; Ways of Escape 2009 single work novel ; True Colours : Lauren Huxley and Her Family : From Tragedy to Triumph 2009 single work biography -
Small-Town Trials of an Unlikely Hero
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23-24 May 2009; (p. 29)
— Review of Jasper Jones 2009 single work novel -
A Resident Boo Radley
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 25-26 April 2009; (p. 26-27) -
Silvey's Tale Strikes a Chord
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 2 May 2009; (p. 51) -
Silvey Lining
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 16 May 2009; (p. 27) -
The End of Childhood
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 22 August 2009; (p. 11) -
Freo Writer Wins Hearts and Awards for Indie Novel
2009
single work
column
— Appears in: The West Australian , 28 September 2009; (p. 17)
Awards
- 2012 winner The National Year of Reading 2012 Our Story Collection — Western Australia See NYOR Our Story winners.
- 2012 honour book Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature
- 2011 shortlisted International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- 2010 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — The Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction
- 2010 shortlisted Australian Booksellers Association Awards — Booksellers Choice Award
- Western Australia,
- Country towns,
- 1965