Author | Henrietta Branford |
---|---|
Cover artist | Helen Schulman |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre | Children's historical novel |
Publisher | Walker Books |
Publication date
|
1997 |
Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
Pages | 127 pp (first edition) |
ISBN | |
OCLC | 789628635 |
LC Class | PZ7.B737385 Fi 1998 |
Fire, Bed, and Bone is a historical novel for older children by Henrietta Branford, published by Walker in 1997. Branford won the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.
Walker's North American division Candlewick Press published the first U.S. edition in 1998.
The story is narrated by a nameless hunting dog, as witness to the English peasants' revolt of 1381. She does her best to survive while trying to raise her own puppy Fleabane after the others were brutally mauled to death by a wild cat, tracking her captive owners Rufus and Comfort as they are tried for heresy. Branford's martianist technique (see Craig Raine) creates a more primal narrative voice in contrast with the suspected response of the reader, but themes including matriarchal affection and honour unite man and dog.
One catalog summary:
Beside winning the Guardian Prize, Branford was a commended runner up for the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.Fire, Bed, and Bone also made the Kliatt Editors' Choice and Voice of Youth Advocates Non Fiction Honor List.
Fire, Bed, and Bone in libraries (WorldCat catalog) —immediately, first US edition