The Year the Maps Changed
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Wolf Hollow meets The Thing About Jellyfish in Danielle Binksâs debut middle grade novel set in 1999, where a twelve-year-old girl grapples with the meaning of home and family amidst a refugee crisis that has divided her town.
""Timeless and beautiful, and it deserves to be read by people of all ages."" âPrintz Award-winning author Melina Marchetta
If you asked eleven-year-old Fred to draw a map of her family, it would be a bit confusing. Her birth father was never in the picture, her mom died years ago, and her stepfather, Luca, is now expecting a baby with his new girlfriend. According to Fredâs teacher, maps donât always give the full picture of our history, but more and more it feels like Fredâs family is redrawing the line of their story . . . and Fred is feeling left off the map.
Soon after learning about the baby, Fred hears that the town will be taking in hundreds of refugees seeking safety from a war-torn Kosovo. Some people in town, like Luca, think itâs great and want to help. Others, however, feel differently, causing friction within the community.
Fred, who has been trying to navigate her own feelings of displacement, ends up befriending a few refugees. But what starts as a few friendly words in Albanian will soon change their lives forever, not to mention completely redrawing Fredâs personal map of friends, family, and home, and community.
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Danielle Binks is an author and literary agent from Melbourne, Australia. The Year the Maps Changed was her debut novel and has been shortlisted for the Prime Ministerâs Literary Award and was a Childrenâs Book Council of Australia Notable Book. She has since written her first young adult novel, The Monster of Her Age, and has edited and contributed to Begin, End, Begin, an anthology of new Australian young adult writing, which won an Australian Book Industry Award. To learn more about Danielle, visit her online at www.daniellebinks.com.
