The Bone Sparrow

"Indispensable." -- Booklist (starred review)

Subhi is a refugee. He was born in an Australian permanent detention center after his mother and sister fled the violence of a distant homeland, and the center is the only world he knows. But every night, the faraway whales sing to him, the birds tell him their stories, and the magical Night Sea from his mother's stories brings him gifts. As Subhi grows, his imagination threatens to burst beyond the limits of the fences that contain him. Until one night, it seems to do just that.

Subhi sees a scruffy girl on the other side of the wire mesh, a girl named Jimmie, who appears with a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it herself, Jimmie asks Subhi to unravel her family's love songs and tragedies that are penned there.

Subhi and Jimmie might both find comfort -- and maybe even freedom -- as their tales unfold. But not until each has been braver than ever before and made choices that could change everything.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 11/01/2016
ISBN: 9781484781517
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.55h x 5.75w x 0.90d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 01/01/0001
School Library Journal 09/01/2016 pg. 138
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2016
Booklist 10/01/2016 pg. 75
Publishers Weekly 10/03/2016
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 11/01/2016
Horn Book Magazine 01/01/2017 pg. 92

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 502113 / Bone Sparrow
Reading Level: 4.9 / Interest Level: Middle Grade / Point Value: 8