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Annotated Bibliography

Fiction

French, J., (2004). Tom Appleby Convict Boy. Sydney, Australia: HarperCollinsPublshers. This book focuses on a character called Tom Appleby, who is an eight year old chimney sweep. Tom is made an orphan after his father dies, he is sent to the workhouse and later becomes a chimney sweep. In 1787, Tom is first sentenced to death by hanging, however the charge was reduced to seven years penal servitude and transportation to the colonies (p84). The story is written in a journal form it begin 1868, when Tom is 91 years old and then moves back to 1785 when Tom is eight years old. The story intertwines historical and fictional events, allow the reader to gain an understanding of what life would have been like in the 18th century. The text is relevant to the unit of work as it focus is on transportation of convicts from England to Botany Bay, Australia. The story provides a lot of scope of what it meant to be sentenced to deportation and the journey of the First Fleet. The text offers an insight of the challenges the First Fleet had to face not only with the journey but upon arrival to a new land. Through Toms character we see how the Aboriginal Eora people worked with and live off of the land. This text can be read to the whole class and have comprehension activities, imagery journal entries and using Edward De Bono Thinking Hats how would they feel if they were in Toms position. It is a useful text to show another perspective, it can also be linked with the factual events of the First Fleet, bringing them to life for a child. There are footnotes that elaborate and explain certain things within the text that may be unfamiliar to the children. For example: scurvy this was caused by a lack of vitamin C from fresh fruit and vegetables, but in Toms day it was thought that it might be caused by too much salted meat or too much time at sea (French, 2004. p94).

Hill, D. (2008). 1788 The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet: The biggest single overseas migration the world had ever seen. North Sydney, Australia: William Heinemann. This book, as the title suggests focuses on the voyage of the First Fleet. It offers a detailed description of what happened before, during and after the journey of the First Fleet. Once again the text has a mixture of narrative and factual which makes for captivating reading. It explains the political motives of transportation, who sailed on the First Fleet convicts, naval officers and soldiers and what it was like to be at sea for eight months and the arrival in Botany Bay. The text also offers an insight to those who returned back to England mainly the soldiers and sailors including Arthur Phillip detailing some of their journeys. The text also offers an insight as to why many convicts after they were free did not return back to England. At the end of the text there is a chronology of all of the events that occurred during the time of the First Fleet, starting from 1717 when transportation to American was legalised and ending at 1814 when Arthur Phillip, who led the expedition dies.

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This text is extremely relevant to the teaching of the First Fleet unit, as it explores the reasons behind the voyage. It also provides different points of view, through journals and reports which is then added to with additional historical facts. There is also a small insight of the treatment of Aboriginal people and the Europeans, although quite one sided as there are journal entries written by the European settlers; the author does provide a little insight of Aboriginal people. Hill highlights that primary sources were used throughout the book and could be a useful resource to extract primary sources. Some changes were made to make for clearer meaning and understanding to the reader, there is a comment regarding the issue of conflicting dates. This could be used as a teaching point to highlight how records were not recorded accurately at the time and so we need to be vigilant when researching. Another teaching point could be to discuss the poor literacy skills and how names were spelt differently several times. The chronology would be extremely useful in compiling a timeline and could be divided up by the whole class to sort through the dates and information and put them in order this timeline could then be displayed around the classroom. The chronological feature as well as including primary knowledge is a very special feature of the text. Hill pieces this together with an easy to read narrative. The book spans five years from 1787 to 1792.

Laguna, S. (2011). Our Australian Girl: Meet Grace. Melbourne, Australia: Penguin Group. This book focuses on a character called Grace who is 10 years old nearly 11 and an orphan. She lives with her uncle and had a job as a mudlark. Grace and her uncle are extremely poor because they cannot afford much Grace is often hungry. The hunger leads to Grace one day stealing apples from the grocers cart and then stealing a horse which she is caught. She pleads guilty and is sent to Newgate prison to await her trial. The figurative language that is used makes the story come alive in your mind A runner locked the same chains around Graces ankles, wrists and neck the chains were cold and so heavy she could hardly lift her arms (Laguna, 2011. p53). After some time spent in Newgate Grace called back for sentencing, for the crimes she committed Grace received seven years penal servitude and transportation to the colonies (Laguna, 2011. p78). The book finishes with Grace boarding the ship that will set sail for Australia, this continues with three other books in the series. The story intertwines historical and fictional events, allow the reader to gain an understanding of what life would have been like in the late 18th and early 19th century. The text is relevant to the unit of work as it focuses on the transportation and penal sentences of convicts, the focus on this text is on a child. It provides us with an insight of what life was like in the 18th and 19th century and the conditions people lived in in England. As with Tom Appleby Convict Boy, this text can be read to the whole class and have comprehension activities, imagery journal entries. Implementing Edward De Bono Thinking Hats and asking questions such how would they feel if they were in Graces position? and debating whether Grace was wrong to steal the apples or was it a justified act? It is a useful text to show another perspective of a child convict, particularly a girls point of view.

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Ciddor, A. (1995). Early Colonial Times through childrens eyes. Melbourne, Australia: Macmillan Education. This focuses on two stories, the first story is about two Aboriginal children, called Beelah and her brother Garaweh, who live in a band, had enough food and didnt have any worries. The second story is about a young convict boys called James who at the age of six was working to earn money, his family were always struggling for food. One day James get caught stealing and is sent to prison, where he is later sentenced to transportation, he was sent on the First Fleet. The stories are intertwined, they explain how the Aboriginal people belonged to the land and the land belonged to them, they worked with the land and knew where to go to get food in different seasons. James story shows the difficulties the Europeans had, they did not know the land, and they used the things that worked in England, finding they did not work in Australia. The stories compare and contrast the Aboriginal peoples point of view and the Europeans point of view on gathering food, clothes, daily activities, good days, bad days, feeling sick, getting around and other people. Again this text is relevant to the unit of work in particular to (ACHHK080) the nature of contact between Aboriginal people and/or Torres Strait Islanders and others, for example, the Macassans and the Europeans, and the effects of these interactions on, for example families and the environment. As well as (ACHHS085) identify different points of view. Comparing and contrasting activities and sustainability lessons would use this book. Thinking hat activities would be good to use when reading this book, especially yellow hat benefits red hat feelings and black hat cautions. The special feature of this book is that it has two side to the story and it is told through the eyes of children. This means that children in the classroom will be able to imagine themselves in these characters shoes.

Fact Jacob, T. (1987). Bound for Botany Bay. Leederville, Western Australia: Vermont House. This book offers a lot of historical facts and information about what life was like in England during the late 18th century. It covers the crime and punishment and how they coped with the over flowing prisons. There is a section within the book that is titled preparations for the First Fleet highlighting interesting facts, included is Arthur Phillips orders. The voyage of the First Fleet is recorded and details are given of how long they stayed in certain ports and what supplies they purchased. There are black and white drawings that have been sketched, as well as maps of the journey. This text would suit the Humanities and Social Sciences in the Australian Curriculum as there is a lot of information and facts although they are a secondary source. The book could assist in teaching mathematics especially Location and transformation plotting the voyage of the First Fleet on a map. The book provides information that could be used to create word problems in maths, for example: the First Fleet anchored at Tenerife on the 5th June, they stay there for a week, what date did the Fleet leave Tenerife? The book has an a3 size map of the voyage of the first fleet, information on who sailed in which ship. Although the etchings are in black and white they are detailed and could be of use to study and analyse.

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Nicholson, J. (1995). The First Fleet: A new beginning in an old land. NSW, Australia: A Little Ark Book. This is a picture and words book describing the time of the First Fleet. It presents information on the first fleet in a very clear manner. It starts with a short description of what life was like in Georgian England including crime and punishment and transportation. It also covers why was Australia chosen? There are detailed descriptions of the ships of the First Fleet and coloured sketches to demonstrate a typical eighteenth-century ship. There is a double page spread on information regarding the people of the First Fleet with coloured images of the different styles of clothes each group wore: Sailors, Marines, Naval Officers, Convicts and Civil Officers. There is a very detailed description of what was taken onto the ships and what they had to leave behind. The second half of the book focuses on the arrival in Botany Bay, the Iora People, first buildings and the first settlement. The text is very relevant to the unit of work and provides useful information on the First Fleet. It can be incorporated in with mathematics as the children could plan, design and build a model first settlement. They could also work out how long the food would last on the first part of the journey? Did they have enough? Was there enough cutlery? There is also a chance to focus on science and sustainability as the European brought over seeds and plants, children can investigate what plants are not native to Australia, where did the plants originate from? How some of the plants from the First Fleet took over like a weed and killed off some native plants. This book was short-listed for The Childrens Book Council of Australia. It is clearly set out with a wealth of information on the First Fleet. The pictures provide useful imagery especially the clothes of the First Fleet.