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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Adaptations
-
form
y
Looking for Alibrandi
( dir. Kate Woods
)
Australia
:
Robyn Kershaw Productions
,
2000
Z1795269
2000
single work
film/TV
young adult
(taught in 2 units)
'Nonna Katia, Christina and Josie are three generations of Italian-Australian women living together in a hothouse atmosphere of love, support...and drama on an operatic scale.'
Source: Screen Australia. (Sighted: 23/10/2012)
-
Looking for Alibrandi
2022
single work
drama
'The beloved novel of migration, growing up, and Sydney – now a play!
'Three generations of women. The Italian-Australian experience. A tale of Sydney. A much-loved modern classic novel, a ground-breaking film, and now at Belvoir, a simply great night out.
'It’s the last year of school, and 17-year- old Josephine Alibrandi can’t wait for her future to begin. If only she can get past the world of her Nonna, holding on to the values of the old country; and the world of her Mum, full of care and secrets. It’s time to take her place in the real world, beyond her family, beyond being an Alibrandi.
'But this is the year Josie gets to know her father. This is the year she falls in love. And this is the year she uncovers the truth – and finds the Alibrandi she has been searching for.'
Source: Belvoir St Theatre.
Reading Australia
This work has Reading Australia teaching resources.
Unit Suitable For
AC: Year 9 (NSW Stage 5)
Themes
belonging, coming of age, death, family, family secrets, friendship, generation gap, identity, multiculturalism, purpose, relationships
General Capabilities
Critical and creative thinking, Ethical understanding, Information and communication technology, Intercultural understanding, Literacy, Numeracy, Personal and social
Notes
-
Selected in December 2004 by the Australian public in an ABC poll as Australia's 88th favourite book.
Affiliation Notes
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This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has been translated into Japanese, Korean, Indonesian and Chinese.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Braille.
- Large print.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
-
Looking For Alibrandi at 30 : ‘There’s a White-hot Shame about Sticking Out’
2022
single work
column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 7 July 2022; 'A new stage adaptation of Melina Marchetta’s classic spins the Italian Australian experience into a universal story of otherness, family and freedom' -
Looking for Alibrandi : The Forgotten Archived Stories
2022
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 81 no. 1 2022; Meanjin Online 2022; -
Australia in Three Books
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 81 no. 1 2022; Meanjin Online 2022;
— Review of Looking for Alibrandi 1992 single work novel ; Blueberries 2020 selected work prose ; Talkin' Up to the White Woman : Aboriginal Women and Feminism 2000 single work criticism -
Australia in Three Books
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 80 no. 1 2021;
— Review of Looking for Alibrandi 1992 single work novel ; Room for a Stranger 2019 single work novel ; Stranger Country 2019 single work autobiography'I was a bookish child with a voracious hunger for stories. At the age of four, I would hold a tiny torch under my blanket at preschool during nap time so I could keep reading. I devoured all the books and demanded more. In those early days, the books that captured my imagination were about magical, impossible things: fairies, pixies, kindly moon folk. I pored over Australian kids’ books such as Animalia, Possum Magic and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, losing myself in colourful illustrations of strange creatures, rather than anything rooted in the real.' (Introduction)
-
Multicultural Identity and Matters of Gender in Melina Marchetta's Looking for Alibrandi
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 30 no. 1 2016; (p. 35-46) 'The term multiculturalism originated in the 1970s in Canadian politics, where it was found convenient to replace ambiguous set of ideas, with the intention being to promote the cultural and economic concerns and interests of certain non-Anglophone categories, basically to counter the emerging weight of French Canadians. Instances in Looking for Alibrandi (1992) give an idea of the insecurity of a migrant teenager, Josie, who has to live with the bias of both the dominant and the marginalized community, suffering innately because she does not belong to either of the communities but has to learn to cope with such realities.' (Publication abstract)
-
Untitled
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , February vol. 37 no. 1 1993; (p. 29)
— Review of Looking for Alibrandi 1992 single work novel -
Untitled
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , May vol. 8 no. 2 1993; (p. 32-33)
— Review of Looking for Alibrandi 1992 single work novel -
Untitled
2000
single work
review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 14 no. 2 2000; (p. 62-63)
— Review of Looking for Alibrandi 1992 single work novel -
Untitled
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: Fiction Focus : New Titles for Teenagers , vol. 7 no. 1 1993; (p. 20)
— Review of Looking for Alibrandi 1992 single work novel -
Kicking Goals
1993
single work
review
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 21 August 1993; (p. 6)
— Review of The Bamboo Flute 1992 single work children's fiction ; A Long Way to Tipperary 1992 single work novel ; Looking for Alibrandi 1992 single work novel ; Galax-Arena 1992 single work novel ; Belinda 1992 single work picture book ; Blabber Mouth 1992 single work children's fiction ; The Web 1992 single work children's fiction ; Where's Mum? 1992 single work picture book ; Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten 1992 single work picture book -
The Girl Most Unlikely To...
2003
single work
criticism
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5-6 April 2003; (p. 4-5) -
An Interview with Melina Marchetta
1993
single work
column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , February vol. 37 no. 1 1993; (p. 6-7) -
The Children's Book Council of Australia Annual Awards 1993
1993
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 37 no. 3 1993; (p. 2-8) Judge's report for the 1993 Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award. -
Melina Marchetta
1993
single work
column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , November vol. 37 no. 4 1993; (p. 3) -
Student Refused to Read 'Muck'
1995
single work
column
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 June 1995; (p. 3) A Queensland year 12 student claims to have failed his English exam because he refused to read Marchetta's Looking for Alibrandi. The reason for the refusal was that the book contained a description of a girl learning to use a tampon.
Awards
- 2001-2002 shortlisted South Carolina (USA) Young Adult Book Award — Young Adult Book
- 2000 winner BILBY (Books I Love Best Yearly) Awards — Older Readers
- 1994 winner West Australian Young Readers' Book Award — Avis Page Award
- 1994 winner West Australian Young Readers' Book Award — Older Readers
- 1993 winner CBCA Book of the Year Awards — Book of the Year: Older Readers
- Sydney, New South Wales,