Tom Appleby, Convict Boy by Jackie French, ISBN 9780207199424

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A story of transportation and life in a new world.

At the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As one of the members of the First Fleet, he arrives in a country that seemingly has little to offer - or little that the English are used to, anyway.

Luckily, not long after Tom's arrival in the colony, the fair and kind Sergeant Stanley decides to take on Tom as a servant. Together Tom, Sergeant Stanley and his son, Rob, build a house, set up an orchard and a vegetable garden for themselves - and thrive, unlike many others in the new colony.

Jackie French weaves Tom's story in with the story of the development of Australia. She tells of a colony that, despite its natural abundance, cannot offer what the colonists want - familiarity. While the people's health is better than it ever was in England, their morale is low as they wait for news from home.

RRP: $14.95
QBD: $12.71

About the Author: Jackie French

Jackie French wrote her first children's novel, Rainstones, living in a shed with a wallaby called Fred, a black snake called Gladys and a wombat called Smudge. (It was described by the editor at HarperCollins as the messiest, worst spelt manuscript they'd ever received . . . but has been deeply loved by tens of thousands of readers since.)
The messiness was mostly due to Smudge the wombat, who had a particular hatred for Jackie's typewriter (an old one she'd found at the dump) and left his droppings nightly on the keyboard. But the spelling was due to she fact that she's dyslexic, and can't focus on single words to see if they're spelt properly or not.
Jackie was born Sydney in 1953, grew up in Brisbane, graduated from the University of Queensland and moved to her present home in the NSW bush in her early twenties. She and her husband and son live in a house made of stone from the creek, with a wombat named Pudge, a mob of larriken lyrebirds, a frequently drunk goanna, a rambling garden and a waterwheel that provides their power when it's too cloudy for the solar panels.
In the past ten years she has published over sixty books on farming, gardening and pest control, as well as her award-winning children's fiction. She writes for all age groups, from the Hairy Charlie books for the under sixes through 'chapter books' like A Wombat Named Bosco, The Warrior and Annie's Pouch for six to twelve year olds, to novels and short stories for ten to fourteen year olds. These include Walking the Boundaries, Beyond the Boundaries, Somewhere Around the Corner, Alien Games, Mind's Eye, The Secret Beach, Rainstones, Summerland, The Book of Unicorns and Dancing with Ben Hall, as well as the picture book Mermaids (with Bernard Rosa) for all ages.
Somewhere Around the Corner was named the Honour Book in the 1995 CBC awards for younger readers. Her other books have been shortlisted for many other awards including the CBC Award (1992), NSW Premier's Award (1991), Royal Blind Society Talking Book of the Year (1994), Wilderness Society Award (1993) and a Human Rights Award (1994), and she has been a recipient of two Commonwealth Literary Awards. Her work has also been translated into French and German.

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