Mabel Louise Robinson (1874–1962)

I wish I'd known this book when I belonged to the target age group. It feels like an unexpected amalgam of a Heidi, Anne of the Island, and Swallows and Amazons, with a little Railway Children thrown in for good measure - the isolated girl who is just fine with staying that way, who has to carve out a place for herself among townsfolk; the extraordinary girl going away from her beloved home to school, a completely foreign environment where she is seen as a hick but proves herself and wins show more good friends with a very good mind and an unaffected attitude; the completely unsupervised children messing about with boats – and a timely rescue or two. But it in no way owes anything to any of these stories: it is - despite what I just said - very much itself.

Bright Island - so called because it shines in the sun and acts as a beacon for boaters - is the home of the Curtis family, and always has been, as long as there have been Curtises. It is its own world off the coast of Maine, almost entirely self-contained. It used to be home to a large family: not too long ago Gramps, the patriarch, ruled over his son's family: Scottish wife, four strapping sons, and fey daughter. But as the book opens Gramps has died and the four sons have married and left the island, to their father's dismay, and only Thankful, the youngest, remains. She is more of a sailor than any of her brothers ever were, and scorns the decision all of them made to marry and take work off the island (as she scorns the silly mainland wives they've taken) - all Thankful wants is to continue as she's always lived, learning from her former-schoolteacher mother, working around the farm, and sailing every available minute.

When it is decreed that she must go to the mainland to go to school, she digs her heels in. Hard. She has no desire to meet new people, or to learn more than her learned mother can teach her, or to leave the island for any reason whatsoever; the idea of an undetermined time spent at a landlocked school - especially boarding with those sisters-in-law by turns ... It's a nightmare. But as it is decreed, so it must be done, and though she wins a battle or two, the war is a lost cause to her, and off she goes.

There are plenty of fish-out-of-water coming-of-age stories in which the ugly duckling either becomes a swan or proves s/he was never ugly to begin with, and ducklings are terrific. This fits in well amongst them, but stands strong – and bright - on its own. show less

Quite an incredible YA for 1937! The heroine, Thankful, is one of seven children born to a Scottish immigrant mother and the son of a sea captain, the youngest and the only girl, on an island in Maine owed by the family. After her beloved grandfather dies, she learns that he had provided funds for her education at a boarding school on the mainland. Although Thankful is perfectly tuned to her chores, her daily swim in frigid waters, and her sailboat, something inside stirs her into action and show more her life is jolted by the students and teachers she meets off-island, and by her first jaunt to Boston, and her first movie (Anna Karenina with Greta Garbo). Thankful's mother Mary is her rock, and when a crisis occurs, the novel walks the same path as Huw and his mother in How Green Was My Valley, written two years later, in Wales. A comparable coming-of-age novel, in its simplicity and beauty, to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. show less

Thankful Curtis loves life on her family's small island off the coast of Maine and balks at being sent to the mainland for school. She struggles through the changes that go along with adjusting to boarding school and life away from her island, but she's strong, resilient, and stubborn in all the right ways. I loved this coming-of-age story, with its strong characters and beautiful descriptions of island life. Published in the late 1930's, this one has aged very well. Definitely recommended.

A charming book. I particularly liked the illustrations. I also appreciated the complexity & unpredictability of the adult characters. Robert, Selina, even Dave and Orin were more superficial... but the Curtis adults kept surprising me.

There were a few occasions of awkward syntax, and a few times I sort of lost track of where, in her personal journey of growth, Thankful was, but not enough to consider actual flaws. I think this is the best book of the year, including over the winner, The show more White Stag. The Newbery committee probably noted that it promotes healthy American values, and teaches us about life on an island in Maine (and in a boarding school, for that matter).

I wonder why it's not so well known? Is it because it's actually YA, given that Thankful is, what, 17?, and trying to graduate from secondary school & plan for her adulthood? Most Newberys we've read seem to be written for 'tweens. Is it that people (like several other reviewers here) try to read it as contemporary; whereas a better approach would be to imagine it as historical fiction? show less