With Children’s Book Week coming up, I thought it more than time I read the shortlist. I’ve had this particular book for some time, so have read it first. Books on year’s this shortlist in the Older Readers category are mostly grim, judging by the blurbs, and this one is no exception.
Ana is an Iranian refugee imprisoned in one of Australia’s mainland immigration detention centres, but allowed out to go to school. She has a bad case of PTSD after nightmarish experiences in Iran. Her pregnant mother is stressed at being parted from her boyfriend, who was kept at Nauru. Both of them worry that they might be sent back after Ana’s mother gives birth.
Jono is a boy whose Vietnamese father Kenny works at the detention centre. He is intelligent, and decent, but plays up at school and has issues with his father after his mother and sister have both left. His best friend is persuading him to do things he shouldn’t.
They fall in love.
The novel is seen from both their viewpoints, and that of Kenny, who only wants the best for Jono, and is terrified that something bad will happen if his son gets involved with a detainee. He hasn’t been in his job for long and has already been scared by fellow guards who warn him against being nice to the detainees, after he had the nerve to be friendly to Ana on the school bus.
You get the feeling, reading this, that it just isn’t going to end happily. Let’s just say it doesn’t have a pile of bodies, and some things work out, but no, not wonderfully happy either. I felt it fizzled out somewhat, though I could see why it ended as it did.
It’s something along the lines of Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow, (reviewed by me here) a novel for younger readers, which featured a friendship between a boy who has been brought up in immigration detention and a girl from outside, though The Bone Sparrow was gentler and a bit less grim.
You might say, yes, but the situation is grim, and needs speaking about. And that is true. The author says in her acknowledgements at the end that she can’t name some of the people she wants to thank, because under our current laws those who work with refugees in detention aren’t allowed to speak out about what they have seen.
Too sad for me, I’m afraid, but read it anyway, and if you are an American currently shocked by treatment of your own refugees, find out that you’re not alone in this.
The chapters are short enough to be fairly easy reading for teens who are reluctant readers - not non-readers, but those who just can’t handle thick books with long chapters.
Recommended for teens from about 14 years up.
6 comments:
Super review. I do think that literature does need to reflect real life which is sometimes grim. On the other hand, a very sad and grim book can be such a downer that it is hard to take. The refugee situation is a worldwide tragedy. I also think that it is important that books are addressing it.
Hi Brian! It is indeed important to have this matter addressed, wherever you live. I’m not crazy about depressing books, but I’ve read more depressing than this. One YA novel by an author mostly known for her humorous books had its heroine jump to her death in despair on the last page!
I don't read YA often but wonder if gritty sells - maybe not depressing. My top read of 2018 was Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity, and that had dark elements too. But the novel was excellent for me. I'm attempting a MG short set in WWII, and it's hard to address the truth in a palatable way.
Hi Roland! Gritty and depressing do both sell, and publishers are businesses, after all, but I imagine the author would tell you that she was writing about something important, that needs to be addressed, as it does.
Nope. Not for me. I don't like grim books. There needs to be redemption and a happy ending at the very least for me to be interested. I get enough of grim in real life - books are where I escape for pleasure.
My preferences too, but kids have been known to ask me for them! “Miss, can you find me a depressing book?” True! And this one does have some redemption, if not quite a happy ending. But nobody dies, if you don’t mind a spoiler. A few years ago there was a truly depressing book on the shortlist, with a boy who is tortured and maimed by the Taliban ...
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