Thimble Summer discussion thread (Feb. '06)

[Caryl]

Here is our discussion thread for Thimble Summer, one of our two February group reads. As always, be cautious of reading the posts below if you haven't finished, as they may contain spoilers.

[SusanH]

I just finished this book this morning and thoroughly enjoyed it. Such a sweet, simple story. I would have loved this as a child and only wish I had known about it then. I wonder if it's exciting enough for kids today, used to the Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter style adventures. But for me as a child, it would have been perfect. I did find that I viewed her hitchhiking adventure with the eyes of an adult and not a child; I couldn't stop myself from thinking of all the things that could happen and wanted to yell, "Are you insane?! Don't get in that man's truck!" It's funny how differently that would have struck me as a child.

All in all, a great treat to read this book. I hope that I can read it with dd someday. I don't think she'd be ready for it yet, but perhaps in a year or two.

[Caryl]

I also thoroughly enjoyed this book, Susan. This was actually sort of a re-read for me, although I didn't remember too much about it. When I was a child, our library had a small selection of books on tape, and there were three we would check out consistently every summer for our long drives to the cabin. Thimble Summer was one of them. I remembered certain scenes, but much of it felt new to me, perhaps because I was seeing the words rather than hearing them. And who knows, the tape could have been an abridged version of the story.

As a child, I could relate to Garnet in that she was a happy kid who was very comfortable in her family. She was much more daring than I was, but like you were saying, Susan, I viewed her adventures differently than I do now. Then, I think I just knew it was only a story, that one shouldn't hitchhike, that one should be careful about keeping track of the time so as not to get locked in the library , etc. Speaking of being locked in the library, I remember thinking as a child that I'd adore for that to happen! I also didn't think about the parents' worries; I only saw things from Garnet's perspective.

I loved Elizabeth Enright's use of language. Her simple and perfect descriptions helped me picture the story clearly in my head. Here is an example of the kind of detail I'm talking about:

The barn was huge and old; it lurched to one side like a bus going around a corner.

She had lots of little images like that. I also found that the writing flowed so effortlessly, I was swept right into the story and didn't think much about how she was going about writing it, if that makes sense.

I'll definitely try reading this one with dd someday soon.