Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
Thursday's Child
Set in a rural community during the Great Depression, the novel follows a girl growing up amid family poverty and loneliness. Its restrained prose lets imagination and pain move together, highlighting the complexity of a child’s inner life.
Work Information
A quiet voice brings a child’s world in poverty into sharp focus.
Harper Flute watches her family struggle under poverty and silence as her younger brother Tin becomes obsessed with digging underground. The novel is a coming-of-age story from the Great Depression where hope and cruelty coexist.
Review Summaries
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Readers often praise the lyrical prose and the consistency of the child’s viewpoint. Even with heavy themes, many find the narration resonant and memorable.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Candlewick
- Published
- 2003-08-11
- Pages
- 272 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.14 x 1.88 x 17.88 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780763622039
- ISBN-10
- 0763622036
- Category
- 洋書/Teen & Young Adult/Historical Fiction
Sonya Hartnett’s haunting, mythical novel - now in paperback Harper Flute believes that her younger brother Tin, with his uncanny ability to dig, was born to burrow. While their family struggles to survive in a bleak landscape during the Great Depression, the silent and elusive little Tin - "born on a Thursday and so fated to his wanderings" - begins to escape underground, tunneling beneath their tiny shanty. As time passes, Tin becomes a wild thing, leaving his family further and further behind. With exquisite prose, richly drawn characters, and a touch of magical realism, Sonya Hartnett tells a breathtakingly original coming-of-age story through the clear eyes of an observant child. It’s an unsentimental portrait of a loving family faced with poverty and heartbreak, entwined with a surreal vision of the enigmatic Tin, disappearing into a mysterious labyrinth that reaches unimaginably far, yet remains hauntingly near. "Will be treasured by teens. . . . A beautiful and complex coming-of-age story that will burrow into young people’s deepest hopes and fears, shining light on the darkest rooms." - BOOKLIST (starred review)
Sonya Hartnett is the author of several acclaimed novels - the first written when she was just thirteen - and the recipient of many prestigious awards in her native Australia. She says Tin and his tunneling had their origin in ants: "I was living at the time in two rooms, just going back and forth, back and forth as I watched an entire summer of ants excavating under my house. One day it occurred to me that they probably had a huge palace under there. And that’s when I started to think about ways of taking your existence into your own hands - of how, if the space around you was not big enough, you might just dig out some more." This is Sonya Hartnett’s first book with Candlewick Press.
Reviews
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Excellent read....
This was recommended by my Tutor - I am studying Creative Writing - as part of my homework. It is a realistic portrayal of spartan times and the knocks and trials of family life post First World War. The twist is the brother, Tin, of the narrator who has a talent for digging. This book is strange, harsh, bleak and wonderfully descriptive. I would recommend this book for adult as much as children - I have already put my nephews onto it - it is a beautifully written depiction of family life, realistically posed, accepting of family faults etc and wonderfully observed. The twist becomes just part of the story - it's only when you come to explain it to others and see their frowns do you think that Tin and his digging is odd - that's the magic of the book.
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Five Stars
My child was born on a Thursday and I wanted to give her a gift that reflected this
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Fun Read
Fun read--especially if you are able to exercise your willful suspension of disbelief.
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A book that flows
I recently re-read this book, having first read it when I was 11. Some of the themes are probably too dark for an 11 year old, although the book is written in such a way that everything is told through the eyes of a child, and so nothing is explained in a way that is unsuitable. The writing in this book flows beautifully, the words seem to roll off the tongue, and once you get a few chapters in you struggle to put the book down!
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Dark and strange story.
The story was well written and well read, but it was very dark and depressing. Won't be listening to it a second time.