Strange Objects facts for kids
First edition
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| Author | Gary Crew |
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| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | William Heinemann Australia |
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Publication date
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1990 |
| Pages | 185 pp |
| ISBN | 1863301135 |
Strange Objects is an exciting novel from 1990 by the Australian author Gary Crew. It's a mystery story that takes you on a journey through history.
Contents
What the Story is About
Strange Objects is set in Geraldton, a town in Western Australia. The story is inspired by a real shipwreck: the Dutch ship called the Batavia.
The book is told through a collection of papers. These papers belong to a missing boy named Steven Messenger. Steven finds some old items from the Batavia shipwreck during a school camp. He discovers a diary and a mummified hand with a gold ring, all inside an iron pot.
Steven starts to investigate the mystery. He looks into the media excitement around his discovery. He especially focuses on the stories of two people, Wouter Loos and Jan Pelgrom. They were from the Batavia and were left on an island because they caused trouble.
The book shows how people from the past and present are similar. It explores how we understand human nature. It also looks at how people show themselves through what they write. The book is put together in a special way, like a scrapbook. It has letters, diary entries, and copies of documents. This means you hear the story from many different voices, not just one. Steven Messenger has some difficult experiences during his investigation.
Why the Book Was Written
This book was partly written because of Australia's Bicentenary in 1988. This was a big event that celebrated 200 years since the first permanent European settlement in Australia. It made many people interested in Australian history again.
The Bicentenary celebrated the arrival of the "First Fleet" in 1788. This was when European settlement officially began. Before that, James Cook mapped the east coast of Australia in 1770. But there were other sightings and landings by Europeans even earlier.
In Strange Objects, Gary Crew imagines that some people who survived the Batavia shipwreck made it to the mainland. He suggests they lived with the Aboriginal people of the area. This idea is based on some real observations. Later European settlers noticed that some Aboriginal people had fair hair. They also built more complex bush huts, which looked a bit like European houses.
The Real History Behind the Story
The Batavia was a Dutch ship that sank in 1629. It had about 300 people on board. Around 250 of them made it to a small, lonely sand bank called Beacon Island.
The ship's commander, Francisco Pelsaert, took a small boat with 48 people. He sailed to Java to get help, leaving the rest behind.
A man named Jeronimus Cornelisz took charge of the survivors. He was a dangerous leader. He quickly formed a group to help him control everyone. To get more power, he sent groups of soldiers to nearby islands to look for water. He told them to leave their guns behind.
When the soldiers found fresh water on a good island (West Wallabi Island), they sent smoke signals. But when no one replied, they became suspicious. Jeronimus and his followers had caused a lot of trouble and killed many people. About 40 others managed to escape to West Wallabi Island.
When help finally arrived, the soldiers on West Wallabi Island had fought off attacks using makeshift weapons. The troublemakers had better weapons, but the soldiers were brave. The commander and the rescue team arrived and punished most of the troublemakers. Two of them were left adrift at sea with very little food or water. They eventually landed on the coastline of Western Australia.
Main Ideas in the Book
Strange Objects explores the role of Aboriginal people. It looks at their place in history and in modern times. In the modern part of the story, Aboriginal people live in a reserve that is not well cared for. They often avoid contact with white society.
The book also shows Aboriginal people in 1629. At that time, they were experts at living on the land. They were much better at surviving there than the Dutch sailors. We also see glimpses of the 19th century. In this time, Aboriginal people were often seen as uncivilized. The novel shows how rich and complex the Aboriginal past is. Their history is told through rock art and passed down through spoken stories.
Awards the Book Won
- 1991: Winner of the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Older Readers
- 1991: Winner of the 1991 Victorian Premier's Literary Award
It was also considered for the Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Fiction Award (from the Crime Writers of America).
