Bone Talk - Hardcover

Candy Gourlay was born in the Philippines, grew up under a dictatorship and met her husband during a revolution. Growing up, she wondered why books only featured pink-skinned children who lived in worlds that didn’t resemble her tropical home in Manila. It took her years to learn that Filipino stories too, belong in the pages of books. Her novel Bone Talk was recently shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Prize – it is set in the moment when headhunting tribes in the Philippines come face to face with American invaders. Her picture book, Is It a Mermaid, lushly illustrated by Francesca Chessa, was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her novels have also been listed for the Waterstones, the Blue Peter and the Guardian Children’s Book Prize. She lives in London with her family, where she wages war on the snails in her garden.

FROM THE AUTHORDear Reader, The U.S. really did invade my native Philippines in 1899. Research was hard because that period was mostly written up, not by Filipinos, but by Americans, as tourists & conquerors. Some things in my book might shock you. War is shocking. Unfamiliar culture is shocking too. But it would have been disrespectful for me to edit out the beliefs of my characters. BONE TALK is for older middle grade (OMG!) interested in identity, culture clash, colonialism and erased/forgotten histories.It will be enjoyed by fans of:They Called Us Enemy by George TakeiAmerican Born Chinese by Gene Luen YangBoxers and Saints by Gene Luen YangPersepolis by Marjane SartrapiPatron Saints of Nothing by Randy RibayChains by Laurie Halse AndersonSalt to the Sea by Ruta SepetysAll the Light We Cannot See by Anthony DoerrHello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly Candy GourlayLondon