Rabbit-Proof Fence

by Phillip Noyce

93 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jeonghee Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was pretty disappointing to me because I was expecting a thrilling like scenario where the black tracker would nearly catch up to the 3 girls as they are escaping from their lives, this book tells a story about 3 girls who are descrimated because of their racial origins. They get sent to a educational camp, but soon escape because of how terrible the conditions were. Successfully escaping a few kilometers the girls have to find the rabbit proof fence which leads to their home which is about 800km long, they have a grueling and excruciating journey as they suffer from hunger and dehydration constantly getting followed by search parties and people who are finding her.

[Rachel Robins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it when I can read a book and learn something about history that I didn't know happened. "Rabbit-Proof Fence" is one of those amazing books that educates and expands your world view. Doris Pilkington writes about the incredible story of her mother and aunts in 1920's Australia. The government of Australia, since the 19th century, removed half-caste (part Aborigine/part white) children from their parents to send them to a "education camp" called the Moore River Native Settlement. These children were treated harshly and rarely returned to their native home and families. The AMAZING story here is that these girls (the oldest was 13) actually escaped and walked 1200 miles back to their homes!! The narrative is not quite like a Western novel. We get a solid background on white colonial influence then the story of girls escape and a brief summary of their life afterward. The narrative is fasinating to me, I actually wrote a big ol' paper on it. This type of writing is specific to Aboriginal women and is referred to as "Life-Writing". Expect a straight-forward account of what happened without much embellishment, insertion of great emotion, or jugdgement. This book is short and totally worth the read to learn about these courageous young girls. There is also a very good movie based on the book, same title--you can get it from Netflix or watch it for free on youtube. I would recommend reading the book, then watching the movie to get a very good idea of this troubling piece of world history.

[Keita Hayakawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rabbit-Proof Fence
Stage 3
100min

7 word

Molly
Jigalong
discriminate
hard
grow
escape
walk

Have you ever felt difference from other person?( education in your house, environment in your house)

When I was a elementary school student, I went to friend's house and ate dinner in his house. I was surprised very much because my friend washed dishes after dinner. In my case, my mother did it.

I thought discriminate is a big problem. Black people and white people are same people.

[Emiko Miyasato · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent about 95 minutes to finish reading this book.
I was surpride at this story because it is true story.
I heard there is movie virsion so I want to watch it.

7 words summary
Aborigines, law, escape, man, fence, Gracie, losing

Discussion Question
What do you know about Aboriginis?
Their traditional music instrument is Didjeridu. I saw that instrument when I went to Australia.
It seemed difficult to play. I wanna play it someday!

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way it was written made it hard to get into the story. There were many words written in the original language that the mini dictionary in the back did not include. The "hiccup" made by constantly having the reader check the back of the book for the meaning made the story harder to get into.

The actual events are very heart-wrenching. The movie did a very good job of portraying this.
Read the book first, then watched the movie.

[Donna Olsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very powerful and painful! Another part of history where ignorance causes persecution and inhumanity.

[Minna · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was frustrating because in essence it was a really good story, sometimes told with compelling 'story telling' style, but a lot of the time it just felt very underwhelming?