Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly

Carole Wilkinson

Black Dog Books, 2002 - Bushrangers - 133 pages

"Ned Kelly was a thief, a bank robber and a murderer. He was in trouble with the law from the age of 12. He stole hundreds of horses and cattle. He robbed two banks. He killed three men.Yet, when Ned was sentenced to death, thousands of people rallied to save his life. He stood up to the authorities and fought for what he believed in. He defended the rights of people who had no power. Was he a villain? Or a hero? What do you think?" -- BOOK JACKET.

What people are saying

User Review -

Constable Hall Incident (RETELL)
The midday sun was burning down on my police uniform as I walked down the edge of the street. I was recalling the time when Ned Kelly exposed my plan in front of the entire court. My plan was to get Ned to draw Jimmy Quinn into a fight, then Ned would run to the police station for protection from me. I would then save the day and arrest Jimmy. That part of the plan worked perfectly, but when the incident had to be told in front of the judge and jury, Ned told the whole story! I was so infuriated that I wanted to strangle the boy. At the time, the love of my life, the stunning Sergeant who lives next to me, was there. I had never felt so embarrassed in my entire life! I had a slight outline at the time of how I was going to get Ned Kelly back: I would trick him over to the police station somehow then arrest him for horse stealing. After investigating, my conclusion was that “Wild” Wright had stolen a horse was staying at the Kelly’s. It was described as a very fine, well-trained chestnut horse.
When I was still thinking about the case, the irritating boy came riding along beside James Gloster (a hawker) and his caravan on the other side of the road. Ned was looking very satisfied with himself about something, then, I realised that it was the horse! A striking chestnut horse to be exact. This time I would get Ned back for when he exposed my wonderful plan to arrest Jimmy Quinn, to the entire court. With as much merriment as possible, I waved Ned over. “Morning, Senior Constable,” Ned sarcastically replied. “Can you just come over to the station for a minute Ned? There’s a few more papers just arrived that you have to sign,” I said to Ned. My plan was to grab and arrest him for horse stealing. Ned had ridden over and was within my grasp, I had to take the perfect opportunity! Without hesitating, I grabbed Ned’s jacket and yelled, “I am arresting you! For stealing this horse!” The brat of a boy was struggling fiercely, and I was holding his jacket as tight as possible then RIIIIIIIPPP… his faded red jacket tore at the arm, where I was holding. I reached out viciously and grabbed another segment of his jacket to prevent him from escaping. I realized that he was coming towards me, I thought it was my strength at the time if only it had been. Seconds later, I had an elbow in the face and a knee in the stomach.
I heard the horse whinny and Ned started to run. I used all of my energy from that strong coffee to scramble up as fast as I could. I was NOT going to let that Ned Kelly get away from me! Sweating from getting up so quickly I pulled my revolver out of its holster and aimed it at Ned’s head. “Stop where you are, or I’ll have the pleasure of shooting you dead!!” Ned, obviously afraid of me now, turned around and said, “Shoot and be damned!” The rude, ignorant boy! I pulled the trigger, aimed straight at Ned’s head. He’s gone, at last! Ha! The smoke cleared, and Ned stood there, alive as ever. I pulled the trigger, it misfired twice again! Damned gun! Ned stood there, frozen with fear, boy, this was a good feeling! Suddenly, the boy started to move again, he leaped at me, grabbing my neck in one hand and my revolver in the other. I started to yell out, but my cries for help were suppressed because Ned was strangling me!! Then half a dozen men who had heard my cries rushed out of the shops all around and jumped on Ned’s back. I pulled the revolver from Ned’s hold and started bashing him over the head with it. I am really getting him back now! Ha! Blood was pouring from his head, but he would NOT stop staring at me with those ‘dingo eyes’. I feel like I really got revenge this time! 

User Review -

me and the rest of the Kelly gang were hiding out in the hills everything was silent and then we stared out into the trees as we saw smoke and gun shots from stringybark creek we walked silently over to the strinybark creek area I stopped the gang and stared at those little fat pigs all they do is look for us where not the only ones doing crime in this bloody town there always trying to get us in things that we didn't do one of the policeman was firering at trees and trying to practice the other police man was cooking some dinner one of the Kelly gang walked up to the cook up the policeman saw them and got there gun out tried to shoot but missed and then I came out I shot a fire at him a chipped his ear and he fell of his horse we took the food and ran off like a cheetar  

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• 3: 21
• One Stray Bullet: 29

About the author

Carole Wilkinson was born in 1950 in Derby England. Up until age 40 she worked as a laboratory assistant. It was then that she wanted a change of career. She began to take classes in writing at a university. She showed some of her writing to a friend who worked in the publishing industry. This lead to a commission to write her first novel for teenagers. Since then she has gone on to write several books. She has also written episodes for children's television. She is best known for her Dragonkeeper books. She won the Aurealis Award 2014 in the category of Children's Fiction with her title Shadow Sister: Dragon Keeper. In 2016, she won the Wilderness Society Environment Award for Children's Literature in the Nonfiction category for her book, Atmospheric.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Black Snake: The Daring of Ned Kelly; Premier's Reading Challenge, 7-9; The Drum Series
• Author: Carole Wilkinson
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Black Dog Books, 2002
• Original from: the University of Virginia
• Digitized: Aug 2, 2010
• ISBN: 187637215X, 9781876372156
• Length: 133 pages