The enormous challenge for author Zana Fraillon is to immerse the young reader in the only world that Subhi has ever known. Subhi’s love of reading and thirst for knowledge make him a lively and lyrical storyteller. The terrible things he witnesses – material deprivation, inexplicable rules, and the horrific outcomes of passive protest – are largely related in his voice. (His sister Queeny’s efforts to make meaningful contact with the outside world echo those of young people in detention who have made the Free the Children NAURU Facebook page.) There is the occasional authorial relating of facts and feelings which Subhi wouldn’t or couldn’t know. In contrast to these, Jimmie’s difficulties seem discordant and trivial at times, but he friendship and affinities between the children are conveyed as both fleeting and deep.