The Bone Sparrow
Zana Fraillon
The Bone Sparrow
Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide
by Zana Fraillon
The text is written at a 5th grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for middle graders (ages 9–12), and the content has moderate intensity with some emotionally heavy themes.
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About This Book
What would it be like to be born inside a place where you're not really free? Subhi lives in a detention center in Australia, where the fences hold more than just people—they hold stories waiting to be told. When he meets Jimmie, a mysterious girl with a notebook full of secrets, their worlds begin to change in ways they never imagined.
Themes
Quick Assessment
This middle-grade novel follows Subhi, a refugee boy born in an Australian detention center, and his friendship with Jimmie, a girl who brings a notebook from her lost mother. The story explores themes of hope, imagination, and courage amidst the harsh realities of refugee life and detention. Appropriate for ages 9-12, it sensitively addresses complex social issues with emotional depth and contains no graphic content.
For Parents
Content Intensity
10ME — Moderate — EmotionalReal stakes and emotional weight. May include sustained danger, loss, or bullying.
Was our "Moderate" content intensity rating accurate for this book?
Reading Insights
Hook Factor
1/10A steady, thoughtful read that rewards patient readers.
Discussion Potential
4/10Good conversation starter with themes worth exploring together.
Book DNA
Multi-dimensional content fingerprint
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Details
Book Length
- ISBN
- 9781484781517
- Pages
- 228
- Publisher
- Disney-Hyperion
- Published
- 2016
- Type
- Fiction
- Lexile
- 840L