Summer

This delightful American children’s book published in 1938 and winner of the Newbery Medal of 1939 is the story of one family and their summer in rural America seen through the eyes of the daughter of the family, Garnet Linden. In many ways an idyllic capturing of the events of summer beginning with the discovery of a silver thimble by the Garnet which becomes for her a talisman of the summer, but the hardship and risks of the agricultural life lie close to the surface throughout the book.

The family befriend an orphan Eric and even through the muted, intended for children account of the hardness of his life before he joins the Linden family we can sense the hardships and sometimes horrors of rural poverty. (1939 was also the year of ‘The Grapes of Wrath’). But in general the book is a wonderful evocation of a child’s life, from the moment that Garnet finds the silver thimble and in her imagination ends the drought in exultant style which had been left the farm facing disaster. A moment here to admire Enright’s wonderful illustrations.

We have highlights of the summer, threshing and harvesting and, of course, a fair. In many way the novel prefigured E.B White’s. ‘Charlotte’s Web’ – there’s even a prize-winning pig raised by Garnet. It’s a delightful read by Elizabeth Enright (1907-1968) – I also love her book ‘The Saturdays.’

My copy came as part of a lovely vintage subscription from http://www.lost-in-books.co.uk