Thimble Summer (original 1938; edition 1990)

Garnet finds a thimble which brings its own magic to her Wisconsin farm. Could a summer be anything but magical when it brings a new brother, a new barn, some new stories to tell, and of course, a blue ribbon at the fair?
http://www.bookpikks.com/the-magic-of-small-town-fiction/ ( )

Winner of the 1939 Newbery Medal for Children’s Literature, this is a delightful & heart-warming story of nine-year-old Garnet Linden and one perfect summer on her family’s Wisconsin farm. It’s set in what was in some ways a much simpler time, in a self-sufficient rural environment (her father fired his own lime to make his own blocks for the foundation of his new barn).

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 ( )

A Newberry Award winner from 1939 that well captures rural America of the '30s--both the hard times and the good times.

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 a series of amusing adventures while performing normal farm work: threshing, baking lime for construction, traveling to the country fair.

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. ( )

Sweet story about a girl on a Depression-era midwestern farm and her summer of adventures. Thimble Summer has aged well because of its lack of emphasis on traditional gender roles, and because we have enshrined most of the activities referenced in the book in the cannon of children's literature: prize pigs, state fairs, carnivals, a lock-in, sibling friction. ( )

I really enjoyed this book - I'm such a pushover for books about girls in the past - although this was contemporary fiction at the time it was written (the 1930's). Garnet is a likable girl and I love the adventures she gets up to. Some of the things the kids in this book do would be appalling today - like hitchhiking to a nearby town without telling anyone where she was going. The scenes from the county fair were some of my favorite. Charming tale of a farming family in Wisconsin. ( )