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nancy@nancykeane.com
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Enright,
Elizabeth.
THIMBLE SUMMER
New York : Henry Holt, 1966.
IL 3-6, RL 4.9
ISBN 0805003061
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Nine and a half year old Garnet thought this must be the hottest day that
had ever been in the world. Every day for weeks she had thought the
same thing, but this really was the worst of all. This morning the
thermometer outside the village drug store had pointed a thin red finger
to one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit. If the rain didn't come
soon there would be no corn to harvest and they would have to cut the oats
for hay. Garnet looked up at the smooth sky angrily, and shook her
fist. “You!” she cried, “Why in time can't you let down a little rain!”
Later after Garnet had helped with the dishes, she and Jay put on their
bathing suits and went down to the river. “It looks like tea,” said
Garnet, up to her neck in brownish lukewarm water. “Feels like it
too,” said Jay. “I wish it was colder.” Still it was water
and there was enough to swim in. They floated and raced and dove
from the old birch tree bent like a bow over the pool. When they
were sufficiently waterlogged to be red-eyed and streaming, they went exploring
on the sandy flats that had emerged from the river during the weeks of
drought. Garnet saw a small object, half-buried in the sand,
and glittering. She knelt down and dug it out with her finger.
It was a silver thimble. She ran breathlessly to show Jay.
“It’s solid silver!” she shouted triumphantly, “and I think it must be
magic too!” “Magic!” said Jay. “Don't be silly, there isn't
any such thing.” But late that night Garnet woke up with a strange
feeling that something was about to happen. Slowly, one by one, as
if someone were dropping pennies on the roof came the raindrops, and then
the rain burst strong and loud upon the world. Garnet immediately
thought of the silver thimble.
Thus begins the “thimble summer” when magical things begin to happen for
Garnet and her family. First the rain, then her family gets the money
to build the barn they had needed for years, then Eric, the orphan boy
appears from out of the woods. One after one, exciting and nice things
happen. “As long as I live I'm always going to call this summer the thimble
summer,” said Garnet.
A light-hearted, wholesome, and truly delightful story. A timeless
classic. Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright. (1939 Newbery
Award Winner) (Marsha Carlan, marshad_us@yahoo.com,
Benton Elementary School) |
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SUBJECTS:
Farm life -- Fiction.
Wisconsin -- Fiction. |
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Permission is granted for the
noncommercial duplication and use of this resource, provided it is substantially
unchanged from its present form and appropriate credit is given.
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