The Year the Maps Changed

August 22, 2022
Set in a small Australian town in 1999, Binks’s character-driven debut novel follows 11-year-old Winifred “Fred” Owen-Ricci through a complicated year of change that stretches her understanding of personal as well as global responsibility. Since her mother died when Fred was six, she has been raised in a cozy family unit with her police officer stepfather, Luca, and her beloved maternal grandfather, Pop. When Luca’s new girlfriend and her 10-year-old son move in, Fred begrudgingly tries to adapt. Soon, the family’s community also expands—in some cases also begrudgingly—with the arrival of 400 Kosovar Albanian refugees escaping war in Kosovo. Guided and challenged by ethically driven adults around her—including a thoughtfully drawn history teacher who awakens and nurtures her interest in geography—Fred grapples with the concept of a moral compass and with her changing community and relationships, especially when tragedy hits home. Acknowledging the mark of colonialism on Australia’s history, and including a parallel secondary arc about Fred’s Vietnamese neighbors, Binks engages Fred’s emotionally grounded, intelligently questioning narrative to look at the way “maps lie. Or at least, they don’t always tell the truth.” Protagonists largely read as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Annabel Barker, Annabel Barker Agency.

March 5, 2020
The Year the Maps Changed is Melbourne-based writer Danielle Binks’ debut novel. The year is 1999 and in small-town Sorrento, Victoria, 11-year-old Fred is lost within the complexity of a mixed-up family. Her mother died when she was six, her beloved Pop has now gone away, and her adoptive father Luca and his girlfriend Anika have just announced they’re having a new baby. Just when Fred feels her world can’t get any more complicated, 400 Kosovar Albanian refugees arrive to be housed in a ‘safe haven’ on an isolated headland nearby. As implied by its title, this novel is about how we choose to navigate landscapes—familial, ethical, geographical—that change in ways we cannot always understand or control. As Fred’s life becomes more intertwined with those of the refugees, the novel’s main message shines through: that as individuals and communities we do in fact have the power to form our own opinions and make a collective difference. Binks explores big, timely topics as well as universal themes of friendship and loss in the most sensitive of ways. Brimming with small acts of kindness and with a cast of beautifully diverse and nuanced characters, The Year the Maps Changed is essential reading for middle-grade and adult readers alike. Jacqui Davies is a freelance writer and reviewer based in South Australia

October 28, 2022
Grades 5-8 "Maps lie. Or at least, they don't always tell the truth. They're like us humans that way." Eleven-year-old Winifred--Freddo to her stepfather, Winnie to her late mother, and Fred to others--gains valuable lessons in perspective over a gut-wrenching year of family change, loss, and community activism. Fred struggles to orient herself amid major changes to her already atypical family structure. Set along the Mornington Peninsula during Australia's 1999 sheltering and subsequent repatriation of Kosovar refugees, Fred and friends take cues from a young teacher who asks difficult questions with weighty geopolitical implications. The Albanians' arrival--a real-life event called Operation Safe Haven--offers an empathetic framework as Fred wrestles with her own strong sense of displacement. The emotional plot (including a stillborn sibling), complex themes, and many characters converge with insight in this fairly lengthy upper-middle-grade debut, originally published in Australia. A thoughtful consideration of adolescent frames of reference, morality, and the power of people to give places their true meaning.

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September 1, 2022
It's 1999 in a sleepy town in Victoria, Australia, and Winifred's life is about to change. Fred, 11, has been raised by her caring police officer stepfather, Luca, and beloved maternal grandfather, Pop, since her mother died when she was 6. Now, Luca brings Anika and her 10-year-old son, Sam, into their lives. Worse, a new baby is on the way, and Sam ends up in Fred's class when their tiny school combines grades. Fred's favorite teacher, Mr. Khouri, who emphasizes the human aspects of geography, becomes an important character as the book moves beyond the scope of the single family. The students receive a firsthand geography lesson when Australia accepts Kosovar Albanian refugees from war-torn former Yugoslavia but forces them to stay in a remote quarantine station. Some locals welcome the newcomers; others don't. Fred becomes involved with several of the arrivals, including Nora, a pregnant woman who shares a hospital room with Anika. Nora's character gains strength as the book unfolds and she fights for her and her unborn child's rights to stay after the Australian government decides to send the asylum seekers back. Each of the adults and children who become supporters of the refugees are heroic in their own ways. This work will resonate as similar situations arise today and citizens take action against their governments' refugee policies. Fred is White; the multiethnic supporting cast reflects Australia's immigrant history. A poignant, emotional coming-of-age story. (map) (Fiction. 9-12)

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