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Juvenile Fiction. Juvenile Literature. HTML: A silver thimble and a new friend make a girl's summer magical in Elizabeth Enright's Thimble Summer. A few hours after nine-year-old Garnet Linden finds a silver thimble in the dried-up riverbed, the rains come and end the long drought on the farm. The rains bring safety for the crops and the livestock, and money for Garnet's father. Garnet can't help feeling that the thimble is a magic talisman, for the summer proves to be interesting and exciting in so many different ways. There is the arrival of Eric, an orphan who becomes a member of the Linden family; the building of a new barn; and the county fair at which Garnet's carefully tended pig, Timmy, wins a blue ribbon. Every day brings adventure of some kind to Garnet and her best friend, Citronella. As far as Garnet is concerned, the thimble is responsible for each good thing that happens during this magic summerâ??her thimble summer.… (more)
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I love Elizabeth Enright, she's the one who wrote Gone-Away Lake (one of my favorite book titles ever, fyi) and The Saturdays. Somehow I never read Thimble Summer before, which is probably her best known book. It's very sweet -- little girl living on a farm during
It also reminded me of something that I think about a lot, which is farms. I'm intrigued, in a pleasant way, how preoccupied people are with farms, even though most Americans don't live on farms. It's like the first book everyone has is a book about farm animals. You'd think this was crucial knowledge, how to identify farm animals, and what animal goes Moo.
Grade: A
Recommended: Well, it is what it is, a book about a farm. Also, a Newbery winner.
If You Liked This, Try: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen, Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski, Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright, The Wheel on the School by Meindert Dejong, Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey.
Awards: Newbery Medal, 1939
The only episode that that makes the book stand out as having been written in 1938 is when Garnet hitch hikes to a town 18 miles away. Although she does so without her parents permission, she suffers no ill repercussions from doing so, either from the people who kindly give her rides, nor from her parents. A book written today, even if telling a tale of the 1930s, would never portray hitch hiking as something acceptable for a 12 year old girl to do!
I think this book is really cute. I love the adventures she has with her friends through the story. It
I would like to read this book to my students and have them write me a paper about summer or maybe a story about their summer adventures.
The story covers the summer of a 9 year old girl, Garnet, who finds a silver thimble during a drought and then whose luck changes, with the drought breaking that night. Garnet has
I was struck by the great innocence of the time: Garnet hitchhikes 18 miles to a town and back with no danger and no worry.
The books is well worth reading for kids of any age.
In one of many adventures that summer, Garnet makes a trip on the bus by herself to the next town (imagine that happening today!)
I found the comparisons between town & farm life amusing because they remain similar to such observations today.
Elizabeth Enright is also the author of my childhood favourites – the Melendy Family quartet, which begins with The Saturdays.
Every child should be able to enjoy a Thimble Summer. Sadly, few ever do – or even did – and so this story provides a wonderful escape.
Read this if: you love tales of the unspoiled rural America of 80 years ago; or you believe in happy childhood summers. 5 stars