Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair (Oxford Children's Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Nicholas Fisk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2000 | Series: Oxford Children's Modern Classics

A thrilling futuristic novel set at the end of the 22nd century. The government is cloning new people and has manufactured a 1940s wartime family who are unaware that nothing they know is real. Our hero is sent to monitor these 'Reborns' and gradually becomes aware of a horrible underlying secret. A brilliant plot twist at the end turns the book on its head. An exciting sci-fi novel which will appeal especially to boy readers, with the topical subject of cloning. This extraordinarily prophetic 80's novel, which was published in the Oxford Children's Modern Classics series in 1999, is now reissued in a smaller, mass-market paperback format.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Oxford Childrens (November 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019275047X
• ISBN-13: 978-0192750471
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,346,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling, unforgettable SF guaranteed to hook kids, May 21, 2007

By 

Pop Culture Dropout - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair (Oxford Childrens Modern Classc) (Paperback)

This book has stayed with me in all its detail for 20 years and counting. SF for kids shouldn't be as strong as whiskey, as cold as wind sheering between glass skyscrapers, and as brutal as real life... should it?

As usual, Fisk pulls no punches. Like all good children's authors, his central lesson here is that you can't trust the grownups. A RAG, A BONE, AND A HANK OF HAIR may be the scariest of all his books with its grim future setting and tragic conclusion. It is also one of the most memorable (tied, in my mind, with YOU REMEMBER ME!). Young Brin starts off as a highly dislikable character who looks down on the Reborn family from the 1940s, but by the end of the book, he's been won over by their humanity, a quality that was absent from the sterile hitech world he was born into. But that's not the outcome that the developers of the Rebirthing technique wanted...

Every kid needs to hear the terrible truth about the perfidy of authorities and the unreliability of friends. Wrapped in an unputdownable story, the lesson sinks in and stays with the reader. Buy this book (or any of Nicholas Fisk's books) and give it to a child you know today.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking, May 10, 2006

By 

Rebecca (Scotland, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rag, a Bone and a Hank of Hair (Oxford Children's Modern Classics) (Paperback)

I first read this when I was about 11 or 12, and the category in my mind was that it was "a scary book". I just picked it up the other day when I was home and my younger brother was reading it for school. I remembered that I'd enjoyed it when I was younger, and began to read it again. It didn't disappoint me. I'd forgotten some of the storyline, for instance, the beginning section that wasn't set in the Reborn's living area, but the rest of it had the vaguely unsettling feel that I had remembered.

When the end came (for the second time) I wasn't that shocked at some of it, as I had remembered the one crucial point of the story (but I won't go any further, for those of you who haven't read it!) but I was surprised by the depth of the issues that could be shown by a children's book, having become used to the sometimes shallow and one dimensional books on the shelves today.

This book truly deserves the title of a Modern Classic, both by the quality of the writing and the issues it deals with.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Foray into the Possible World of Cloning . . ., May 19, 2002

By 

Shanshad "shanachie_shadowfax" (Discworld) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rag a Bone and a Hank of Hair (Hardcover)

I haven't read this book in a number of years, due to the fact I cannot find a copy. However, since I read it years ago, the story and title have stayed with me--which is a clear sign of a good, thought provoking book. The story takes place in a future where nuclear war has occurred and the birthrate has dropped off, so that scientists are looking into cloning as a solution. Particularly, the cloning of people from the twentieth century. The test group has been created from some genetic material that was recovered from the WWII period. This is the "Rag, bone and hank of hair" that the story refers to. A boy of the future is sent in to interact with this test group of two children and a maid. These three have been conditioned to believe they are living in WWII England. They are provided with false memories and stories and have no idea that they are in a far-flung future. The boy interacting with them undergoes a profound change of character as he works with them, coming to understand something of the nature of humanity, and himself.

What struck me most about this was the power of story and belief upon human experience, and how this ultimately shapes the startling ending of the story. The perceptions we have at the beginning are dramatically reworked by the last few pages. And the story provides some food for thought. With cloning becoming a real possibility in today's world, some of the questions raised here might not be so far off base. I found it to be an excellent SF read, with some wonderful accounts of what it would be like to be in England during WWII bombings. I'm hoping to get a copy one of these days so I can reread it. Hope you can find one too!

Happy reading! ^_^
--shanshad