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Jun 22, 2008

Qt rated it:

Another Elizabeth Enright book--and another perfectly charming, great-for-summer novel. I love the writing style and the way the simple things are described in such a beautiful way. It also gives a neat glimpse at 1930s farm life, and I loved the descriptions of the town Garnet, the protagonist, visits. A lovely book!

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 13, 2008

Jonathan rated it:

As most readers know, any book written by Elizabeth Enright (see my book recomendation of Gone-Away Lake; 4-star) is a work of art, but this book is certainly the highlight of her career. Garnet (Enright comes up with the weirdest names) finds a silver thimble by the lake, and she's sure it's magic when the summer proves to be so interesting to her. Her prized runt (this part is thought by some to be a ripp-off of Charlotte's Web) wins a blue ribbon at the fair, and there was the adoption of a b More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2009

Josiah rated it:

One unusual thing about this book is the fact that the author describes some stories that are told in great detail by the characters, allowing the full ambience of life in the country during the time periods represented to stand tall in all its flavor. This is something that I liked quite a bit, as detailed stories from all ways of life (especially ones that date back to older times) really appeal to me.
Elizabeth Enright has done a very good job in the writing of this Newbery Medal winner More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Jill rated it:

This won the Newbery in 1939. After I read The Cat Who Went To Heaven (1931 Newbery winner) I was a little gun-shy about the 1930s winners. I was starting to think all the early Newberys were duds but this book proved me wrong! It's a quick read and a nice feel-good story. The author has a way of describing things that reminds me of my relatives in Western Pennsylvania--descriptive and colorful but no frills language that gets to the heart of what's going on. I love that kind of story telling. T More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Catherine rated it:

Why didn't I know about Elizabeth Enright when I was growing up? I read everything by Maud Hart Lovelace and Lois Lenski, but she passed me by. Enright's books are just the type that I adored when I was 9 or 10 years old--a bit old-fashioned, but smart, with characters who were adventurous and curious and made messes and hung out with the coolest grownups.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2007

Jennifer rated it:

What a fun book to read aloud! I love Elizabeth Enright's style. Her descriptions are beautiful and the dialogue is easy to read. Vocabulary words pop up just often enough to encourage discussion and dictionary searches. This was a great book for identifying setting and its effect on the story.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 20, 2010

Antof9 added it

Loved this one! I hesitate to say we're into another good Read-the-Newberys decades because I fear I'll immediately disappointed, but this was so enjoyable!

I love that this little girl named Garnet sometimes gets called Ruby, I love that she has a pig named Timmy, I love that she's disappointed she wasn't locked in the library all night, and I love the way they just unquestionably enfold Eric into their family like it's the most normal thing in the world. Oh, and I really loved Mr. Fr More...

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Jul 24, 2009

Debbie (Readerbuzz) rated it:

I feel pretty sure I read Thimble Summer when I was a little girl. I have a memory of disappointment; I was always hoping the thimble the main character, Garnet, finds would turn out to be magic. It wasn't. This book was one of my early attempts with and disappointments with realistic fiction (though I have learned to love it in recent years.)

The story is of a girl who discovers a thimble, a thimble that leads to a whole summer of good things. An orphan boy comes to live with Garnet' More...

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Jun 24, 2009

Leah rated it:

Elizabeth Enright is one of my favorite authors in all the world. This book exemplifies how she could paint a picture of a child's world with just the right details to make it amazingly clear. Her insight into what makes life interesting to a young mind leads to sentences with startling evocative perfection.
Reading this book makes me feel like a young girl growing up on a Wisconsin farm in the 1930's. I adore this book and cannot recommend it strongly enough to absolutely everyone. More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 05, 2011

Dan rated it:

In my mind there are two "surefire" things when it comes to entertainment. Hallmark Hall of Fame movies and Newberry Medal Winner or Honor books. This book won the Newberry Medal for 1938. This was an enjoyable story that I'm not sure my students will be able to relate too well. Primarily because the cost of living is so much more expensive than it was at the time this was written. I think that they'll have a hard time relating to how Garnet (the main character) is able to buy so More...

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Dec 28, 2010

Jess rated it:

I loved this. The Newbery Award has yet to let me down!

This one has been on my TBR list for a while now, and I'm glad I finally got to it. I was completely transported while reading this. Enright tells of the everyday life of a young girl during one summer in the Midwest. When I say I was completely transported, I mean it. It's cold, like frigid cold, here. The wind is howling, and the thought of going out into the world outside of my house makes me miserable. This book put me into a More...

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Jul 16, 2009

Anne Thomsen rated it:

Kate gave me this book from the Kearney Library mostly because the main character's name is Garnet, and Garnet currently happens to be my favorite girl name. I've been reading Thimble Summer on the bus the last week, and it has been wonderful. Enright's descriptions of rural Wisconsin are fantastic. They made me want to go out and pet a pig and take a trip to a county fair. I especially enjoyed Garnet's hitchhiking adventure and the addition of Eric to the Linden family. The drawings were exc More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Amanda rated it:

Thimble Summer was published in 1938 and won the Newberry Medal in 1939. It’s about a 9-year-old girl named Garnet growing up on a farm in rural Southwestern Wisconsin. The book takes her through several months during one summer, through a drought, a silly runaway trip, and a fair.

Reading this book was like reading a book about a foreign country I know nothing about. Seriously. Imagine a sappy, more childlike version of Steinbeck’s The Red Pony. The American Midwest was a completely di More...

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Mar 17, 2011

Janeen-san rated it:

I've only read this book once, and it will be in my memory forever as one of the most dull stories ever told.
The author, Elizabeth Enright, has done an extremely poor job of describing the characters and settings.
The chapters might as well be short stories all by themselves; different things happen in every one; different and dull things. The main character's personality SHOULD have used waaaaay more depth, she was a do-it-now-and-never-think-about-it-later kind of person.

More...

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Mar 05, 2008

Deana rated it:

I did not care for this book. It was a Newberry winner, apparently, but... I dunno. There wasn't really a connecting plot through the whole story. Each chapter was a totally separate story, if you ask me. The only connection was the characters and they all took place in the same summer. But it could have just as easily been a series of short stories, you know?

For instance, the second chapter is a story where Garnet (the main character) and her friend are listening to her friend's gra More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2009

Janis rated it:

This story of a farm girl's summer adventures, set in 1930s Wisconsin, really captured my heart. Elizabeth Enright clearly remembered what it was like to be a child and evoked that state beautifully. I liked the characters, the seeming simplicity with which the story unfolded, and especially liked the descriptive writing ("The barn was huge and old; it lurched to one side like a bus going around a corner."). Enright won the 1939 Newbery for this one. I look forward to reading other boo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 01, 2011

Lauren rated it:

It took me 80 pages in to realize that the plot must have started by then. I just couldn’t get into this book. I kept waiting for the story line to emerge, and it never did. I did, however, grow to like the feisty and wiry main character, Garnet Linden. The small town atmosphere is also enjoyable and relaxing; the fun fair and summer activities reminded me of some of my own summers in the Midwest. It is a pleasant read, but it won’t exactly keep you on your toes.

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Mar 13, 2009

Kathleen rated it:

I re-read this book at least a couple times per year -- there is something so pleasant about the ritual of revisiting Garnet and her family on their farm; first waiting for the rain to come, then her adventures with Priscilla, the strange visitor, and then Garnet's own journey from home, only to return back again. The illustrations are simple pen and ink line drawings, but they convey the story's elements beautifully. This book is most definitely a classic.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Marie rated it:

In Camden, Maine this summer, I found an early hardcover copy of this book with pictures by Ms. Enright - it is a gem of a summer story- old-fashioned farm life in the midwest. Amazing language and great descriptions- but again, simply done, evocative, like music. It is a great book and I would highly recommend it as a gift book for - perhaps, 8-10 year olds, - it kind of reminded me of Charlotte's Web

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Jun 27, 2011

Kathy rated it:

This was an awesome book. Partly because I remember loving Elizabeth Enright when I was young (Then There were Five), and partly because it was every bit as good reading it now to my 7 year old. We laughed, we cried while laughing. It is a gentle story. I read some of the reviews and we laughed at them, especially the one who wrote "every chapter was more boring than the next", but kept on reading it until the end. I put it up there with the Maud Hart Lovelace Betsy-Tacy books, which t More...

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Nov 12, 2009

Megan rated it:

My Newbery reading continues... This is short and sweet. It's the story of a young girl's farm life over one summer, so it's very Little House on the Prairie, only for slightly more modern times. You won't find anything earth-shattering here. And yet, its simple sweetness is part of what makes it good. I could see myself reading it to my kids.

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Dec 21, 2010

Robyn rated it:

I know my boys will enjoy this book if I read it to them. And I plan to! Cute picture of a girl's summer on her family's farm in Wisconsin back in the days when a 9 year-old could hitchhike to the big city 18 miles away, and no one misses her, and when people could ride in the back of an old truck, standing up! Had some cute lines in it.

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Feb 10, 2010

Melissa rated it:

My love affair with Elizabeth Enright continues.

For some reason, I thought this was set during the 19th century, but rather it's one of those rare kidlit-history books set between the wars. I loved Garnet--she's funny and smart and gets in trouble. Like other Enright books, the descriptions are spot on. A wonderful book that made me giggle.

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Nov 04, 2010

Lalani rated it:

Quick, fun, and entertaining. I found myself thinking most about how unsupervised children used to be. Garnet wandered and wandered and wandered without any supervision at all. The results? She spent one night locked in the public library, and spent another day hitchhiking nineteen miles away and back. Oh, how free and simple things once were...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 01, 2010

Amy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Sep 21, 2009

Grace rated it:

This was a sweet, lovely book. It was strange reading this for the first time now though--when Opal decides to runaway and hitch hike, I cringed thinking something extremely horrible was going to happen. Nothing did, thankfully, but it really does show how times have changed!

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Feb 01, 2009

Becky rated it:

My six-year-old son and I read this together. We read another of Enright's books, but this one was better than the first. The characters were more interesting, and she has a colorful way of describing things with perfect metaphors. We both liked this one a lot.

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Apr 07, 2010

Darby rated it:

I was given this book in 1st grade by my teacher. I fell in love with it. I read it over and over for years....I'm 38 now and still find it as wonderful. I also began collecting silver thimbles then.....I now have quite a few. : )

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Jun 01, 2011

Erin rated it:

It won the Newberry in 1939. Old fashioned, but with good characters and plot. I love the hint of magic that Garnet experiences with the thimble that she found. This was one of my favs as a child (upper elementary)

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Feb 02, 2011

Kristen rated it:

Girl in 1930 America finds thimble in a dried up pond. Good luck strikes her family. She has adventures. Her pig wins an award at the fair. $3.50 can actually pay some bills.

Apparently they were hard up for fabulous stories to award the Newberry in 1939, because this one is only okay, which is not to say I didn't enjoy it. I did. I just thought I would get a little more.

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