Escape From Botany Bay [Hardcover]

Gerald Hausman (Author), Loretta Hausman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

This novel tells the true story of Mary Bryant, a spirited girl in 18th century England, who is sentenced to a prison ship bound for Australia but makes a harrowing escape.

Caught stealing a lady's bonnet in Cornwall, England, in 1786, 19-year-old Mary Broad is sentenced to seven years' incarceration on a prison ship bound for Australia. Amid squalid, dangerous conditions below decks, Mary fights for her life and her dignity, and her spirited, outspoken ways rally her fellow prisoners. She also attracts the attention of Watkin Tench, a marine who helps her get food and clothing and whose child she eventually bears. But Tench will not marry her, and Mary is betrothed to Will Bryant, another convict whom she'd known as a child.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 Up-A successful combination of fictional narrative based on a real person and well-researched facts. Sentenced to hang for stealing a lady's bonnet in 1786, 19-year-old Mary becomes a remarkable survivor. When her death sentence is commuted, she is transported from England to the wretched bowels of a crowded prison ship bound for Botany Bay. She takes advantage of all help, knowing any assistance comes at a price. One "exchange of sorts" with a marine who has provided her with fresh air, an orange, a clean dress, and a bit of freedom results in a baby. Once on land, the prisoners are expected to build a settlement in what will become Australia. Mary's marriage to another convict, Will Bryant, improves her plight in minute ways but, even so, life is unbearable. Using her contact with a ship's captain and her husband's knowledge of the sea, she, Will, her two children, and seven other convicts escape. After three months and 3000 miles in an open boat, they arrive at Timor, but their freedom is short-lived. Will's drunken stories alert the authorities and the group is soon under arrest. He and the children die of fever in captivity, but by 1794, Mary has returned to Cornwall. Shortly thereafter, records of her existence disappear. The carefully chosen language reflects the voice of an illiterate, uneducated young woman whose intelligence, strength, and determination make her survival possible, and Mary's descriptions awaken the senses to the sights, the sounds, the stink, and the filthy horrors of the floating hulk with "churning neath the keel." This is a riveting adventure for fans of historical fiction.-Carolyn Janssen, Children's Learning Center of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OH
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-10. This engrossing novel is based on events in the life of an eighteenth-century woman, Mary Bryant, who led the only successful escape from Australia's Botany Bay penal colony. Unemployed, illiterate, and without family to help, 19-year-old Mary turns to a life of crime. She's condemned to hang for stealing a lady's bonnet, but her sentence is commuted and she's sent to Australia aboard a prison ship. She marries a fellow convict, has two children, and tries to adjust to the harsh life of Botany Bay, but she remains determined to live in freedom. She leads her family and a handful of convicts in a daring escape in an open boat, eventually making her way back to England. The Hausmans use a vivid first-person narrative to unfold Mary's incredible story, and although their character's occasional eloquence is inconsistent with her illiteracy, she's still a fascinating, credible protagonist that readers will like and remember. Ed Sullivan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Orchard; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439403278
• ISBN-13: 978-0439403276
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,406,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am an inveterate storyteller, which is to say: I love to do it, am helpless not to do it, and I do it all the time, even when I am by myself there is an inner monologue going on in my head. This habit of privately roving around in the land of legends is something I've done for as long as I can remember. My mom worried about me when she saw that I spent too much time by myself. I would creep into a closet and close the door and in the silence of the darkness I would spin tales of all kinds. I was never lonely as a kid because I had the imagination of a wild thing, and I was content to play in the fields and valleys and secret caves of that imaginary world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Great Escape, July 26, 2003

By 

Alice Winston Carney (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Escape From Botany Bay (Hardcover)

There are several reasons why I strongly recommend this book to adults and younger readers. First is the simplicity and clarity (maybe authenticity is a better word) of the writing. I felt as if Mary Bryant were talking rather than being talked for. The Hausmans allow her spirit and courage to come through in a way that keeps the sadness or difficulty of the events of Mary's life from overwhelming the story. The story rings true historically, especially with the conditions on the "death" ships and life in the colonies. Knowing that the story is true brings not only Mary alive, but also the richness and complexity of life in the late 1700's. I am in awe of the Hausmans' research, their skill, perseverance and creativity.

If someone were to say that the content of the story (imprisonment, cruelty, death) is too "heavy" for juvenile readers, I would respond that the handling of Mary's character lifts the story out of the realm of defeat and disaster. Children look for stories that are honest about the scariness of the world but also show them how they and/or the spirit can triumph. Importantly in this story, the triumph or survival comes from who Mary is, not from some external magic potion. The fact that Mary is a true historical person and not fictional is also important, especially since the story itself is so very readable--it lets kids see that real people and real life are interesting and exciting, that history is made of real people just trying to get back home.
Adolescent girls need (yearn) to read about real heroines like Mary, not the psuedo-women who are really just macho men with breasts who are passed off as heroines in movies and TV. There is just a real need for stories like Mary's to be told with the love and quality with which the Hausmans told Mary Bryant's story. As Boswell worked hard to free the real Mary, so the authors have freed the historical Mary.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A journey into adulthood and family life, May 23, 2003

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Escape From Botany Bay (Hardcover)

In 1786 19-year-old Mary has been sentenced to hang for stealing a lady's bonnet - but instead finds herself on a prison ship bound for Botany Bay in Australia. Told in the first person, this tells of her struggles on the ship, her new life on land, and her journey into adulthood and family life.