The Bone Sparrow is an important book for all ages to read, especially as the plight of all refugees and particularly the Rohingya takes center stage in national and international politics. It is terrible how we can take away the humanity of others simply because they are different or believe different things. Fraillon never lets the reader see the refugees in the detention center as anything less than human, connecting us to a child that is admittedly fictional in the book but could easily be living in a detention center today.

I'm not sure which kind of child I would recommend this book to (I would easily recommend this to any adult or teen reader) because I think the unreliable narrator may cause some confusion. Older middle school readers may be the youngest I would go in recommending this book.