But not until each has been braver than ever before.

Subhi and Jimmie might both find comfort-and maybe even freedom- as their tales unfold. She carries a notebook that she's unable to read and wearing a sparrow made of bone around her neck - both talismans of her family's past and the mother she's lost - Jimmie strikes up an unlikely friendship with Subhi beyond the fence. As he reads aloud the tale of how Jimmie's family came to be, both children discover the importance of their own stories in writing their futures. The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie-a scruffy, impatient girl who appears on the other side of the wire fence. And as he grows, his imagination threatens to burst beyond the limits of his containment. Shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awardīorn in a refugee camp, all Subhi knows of the world is that he's at least 19 fence diamonds high, and that the nice Jackets never stay long. But his world is far bigger than that-every night, the magical Night Sea from his mother's stories brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. Shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award Shortlisted for the 2017 Prime Minister's Literary Award Shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize

Winner of the ABIA Book of the year for Older Readers

The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon