Marion and the Forty Thieves

Marion’s life is anything but ordinary. The daughter of the principal, Captain Neitenstein, she is the only girl aboard a magnificent floating boys’ school, anchored permanently in Sydney Harbour in the late 1800s. Her best friend has boarded a steamship to France and now it’s just her and this ship full of ragtag schoolboys. One night, Marion discovers that a new student, Alexander Walker, is escaping the ship to meet up with his vicious gang, the Forty Thieves. Marion bravely follows Walker into the frightening Rocks neighbourhood to investigate…What are the Forty Thieves up to and will Marion be able to stop them before it’s too late? Based on the real life Marion Neitenstein, this middle-grade ‘faction’ offers an immersive and historically accurate experience of an unusual nineteenth-century institution for neglected boys.