In Sara Haddad's novel The Sunbird, Palestinian woman Nabila Yasmeen is in her eighties living on Gadigal Country ('Sydney') in late-2023. The story moves between past and present, telling of Nabila and her family's expulsion from their village in Palestine during the Nakba (meaning "catastrophe" in Arabic) in June of 1948 when Nabila was six years old.

Since the novel was first published in 2024, Sara Haddad has adapted The Sunbird for young readers. In this interview, Sara tells fill-in Literati Glitterati host Kirby about the adaptation process. Together, Sara and Kirby explore the new characters and extensions of the story that have been added to this new addition, telling heavy stories for middle-grade readers, the process of collaborating with Palestinian illustrator Baraa Awoor, and the importance of solidarity actions like protests.

Image credit: Baraa Awoor/UQP