Remember when you didn’t know the story of Ned Kelly? The perfect introduction to the man and the myth is the short, pictorial book Outlaw Son: The Story of Ned Kelly. It would be suitable for children as young as six (with guidance), and interesting enough for children up to 12 (or adults who’d like a quick refresher on the details). The format is accessible for school projects with accounts of the incidents of Kelly’s life, crimes, family, gang, tragedies and the last stand at Glenrowan. There are bites of information, extracts from the Jerilderie letter and others, and a timeline. There is contextual information about bushrangers, gold diggers, squatters, the Victorian colony and more. At the end there is a little bit of a prompt to make readers think about just why Kelly is the most famous bushranger in Australia’s history. The book doesn’t glorify, but does make the reader consider the way the police regarded the Kelly family, and evidences public opinion of the man at the time. The book is part of a series including Stuck on History, The Wild Colonial Boys and others —together they should make history interesting and fun for young students.

Angela Meyer is a writer, blogger, and editorial assistant of Bookseller+Publisher

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