Katsuma Ito Ito itibaren Distrito de Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
1939 Newbery Medal Winner So far in my on-and-off quest to read all of the Newbery medal winning books, I hadn't read many of the older ones. Thimble Summer pleasantly surprised me. It's about Garnet Linden, a young girl growing up on a farm in Wisconsin. One summer she finds a silver thimble on some mud flats, and the subsequent good things that happen lead her to believe the thimble is magical. A beautiful sense of place permeated the story. I really enjoyed the author's powers of description; they drew me right into the setting. The characters acted believably, too. That said, I didn't love it since it was so episodic--the theme of a "magic" thimble loosely tied Garnet's summer experiences together, but most of the sections could have functioned as their own short stories. I'm not as much of a fan of episodic tales; there has to be some kind of overarching plot for me to keep turning pages. It was also, kind of refreshingly, not as dark as a lot of contemporary writing. I kept expecting a child to fall into the threshing machine or Garnet to end up hitchhiking with somebody creepy or, essentially, some real life-threatening danger. I guess they didn't do that in 1930s kids' books, though, and I suppose it is sort of nice not to be traumatized by your fiction. Life-and-death matters come on a different level for kids than they do for adults. The opening of the book probably came the closest to an adult level of concern with the specter of drought, lack of food, and unpaid bills cast over the family. Maybe since I expect darkness, I'm still suspicious of that neighbor, Mr. Freebody, too. He's always there to save Garnet. Why is he ingratiating himself with her and her family? Is he grooming them for some sinister purpose? Eeeew. He could be a creep, Garnet. Watch out! ...I'm so sad that's where my mind goes. I guess child sexual abuse prevention training isn't something I can just turn off even when I'm reading a children's book. 0_o
A very vicious and very funny look at the lives of the aristocratic layabouts in England during the 1930s. Tony last is a minor noble whose wife Brenda is from the gentry. They consider themselves poor although they have 15 servants in their huge, ugly pile of a Victorian house set on farmland in Sussex. To the reader they are dull and without merit but the Lasts are intriguing to the abominably ignorant and indolent members of their set in London, if only because they are not around much. Brenda embarks on an affair with the only person more tedious than her husband and the mental and emotional agony that results are wonderous to behold. Waugh at his diabolical best.