Beth, the story of a child convict, Mark Wilson
Type
Classification
1
Creator
1
Genre
1
Subject
8
- Australia -- History -- 1788-1851 -- Juvenile fiction
- Convicts -- Australia -- Juvenile fiction
- Aboriginal Australians + First contact with Europeans -- Juvenile fiction
- First Fleet, 1787-1788 -- Juvenile fiction
- Prisoners -- Australia -- Juvenile fiction
- Children's stories
- Fiction
- Australia -- Social conditions -- 1788-1851 -- Juvenile fiction
Content
2
Author
1
Illustrator
1
Label
Beth, the story of a child convict, Mark Wilson
Language
eng
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
no index present
Literary form
fiction
Main title
Beth
Responsibility statement
Mark Wilson
Sub title
the story of a child convict
Summary
Beth is a child convict, caught stealing on the streets of London and sent to Australia on the First Fleet. Through Beth's story, we discover the unbearable hardships those first convicts suffered, not only on the long journey to Sydney Cove but also in the two years of near-famine following their arrival. The story also explores the new arrivals' relationship with the Indigenous population, and the devastation that the Europeans brought with them. But through Beth's experiences we also see the sense of hope that many in the new colony held for the future, and how they survived - and in some cases thrived. This moving story, illustrated with Mark Wilson's beautifully crafted and evocative artwork, was inspired by the experiences of Elizabeth Hayward, the youngest female convict with the First Fleet, and the journals of naval officer William Bradley and Arthur Bowes Smyth, the surgeon and artist from the First Fleet vessel 'Lady Penrhyn'
Target audience
juvenile
Incoming Resources
- Has instance1