Convicts

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Convicts and the British colonies in Australia

Convict punishments

Convict women in Port Jackson (Sydney)

FICTION Camberwell, Vic. : Penguin Books, - Our Australian girl. Grace ; 01. 96 pages This book and its three sequels tell the story of a girl convicted of stealing apples for a horse and sent to Australia. With a little background explanation, it is very suited to children in Year four. || Pymble, N.S.W. : Angus and Robertson, 2004. 286 p. ; 20 cm. Written for a much older audience than Year 4 (even though Tom is eight years old at the start of the story), this book is nevertheless a must for teachers of history about the convicts brought to Sydney with the First Fleet. French's masterly prose immediately draws the reader into the story. Her deep and thoughtful research (outlined at the end of the book) makes her characters and most events entirely credible because many of them are true. A judicious teacher might read extracts from the early part of the book to a class. Children would be horrified at the life of child chimney sweeps, many of whom became stuck in the winding chimneys of tall English houses and died. The experience of being shut in the dark below deck on a convict ship is similarly evocative. But small snippets could help to bring to life the situation of convicts both before and after transportation. How did young people survive such horrors? Jackie French talks about the "cloak of courage" that kept Tom resilient through some harrowing experiences. ||
 * [[image:grace.jpg width="120" height="164"]] || Meet Grace / Sofie Laguna ; with illustrations by Lucia Masciullo.
 * [[image:http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/isbn/small/4/9780207199424.jpg width="114" height="164" caption="Tom Appleby, Convict Boy By Jackie French" link="http://www.harpercollins.com.au/book/index.aspx?isbn=9780207199424"]] || Tom Appleby : convict boy / Jackie French.

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