This story is a historical novel about a convict girl who escaped from Botany Bay. It is told as Mary Bryant writing a diary and it gives good insight on what she is feeling and thinking while going through being shipped to Australia and then escaping again. She goes through a lot of turmoil in this book, but perseveres and ends up escaping and not being convicted for it. This book is appropriate for the upper elementary school level. ( )

Caught stealing a silk bonnet, teenaged highwaywoman Mary Bryant is sentenced to transportation to the new penal colony at Botany Bay in Australia. Locked in squalor onboard the convict's ship, Mary turns to one of her jailer's for protection, and must marry one of the other convicts when she becomes pregnant. Unhappy in the miserable conditions of the penal colony, Mary and her husband begin to plot an escape from the injustices and violence of Botany Bay, but the only route away is the danger-fraught voyage thousands of miles across the open sea.

Told in the first person as a sort of transcription of Mary's story, the Hausmans create a clear voice for their narrator. Mary's story is told simply and straight-forwardly, much the same sense the reader gets of her character. In that way the novel succeeds remarkably well. Not to mention that this is the first book I've seen dealing with this subject matter. For that - kudos to the authors. I was also very impressed with Mary's strength of character and the portrayal of the Australian natives, particularly the cooperative relationship Will forms with one of the families.

I had the sense that this was being marketed to the wrong crowd (at least where I found it in the library). I would put this firmly in the middle-grade category. Although there's a discussion of violence (including a rather nasty massacring frenzy), those scenes and those about Mary's situation with her Marine guard are talked about very obliquely. Personally, I wasn't sure how far their relationship had gone until she turned up pregnant. I think the older crowd will find Mary's story fascinating (I certainly did), but the level of detail provided in this telling (only 220 pages) was frustratingly low for my tastes. I wanted to know more about what Mary felt, what she was going through, especially during that fateful voyage.

A good place to start if you know nothing about Mary Bryant's amazing escape story. I'm still looking to see if I can find a good adult novel (which I prefer over non-fiction) about her. Let me know if you have any recommendations!

Also posted at my blog ( )