Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright is a delightful story of one summer when Garnet Linden is 9 years old. She lives on a farm somewhere in Wisconsin perhaps during the 1920s. It's hot, so hot, and there are bills to be paid and a drought going on, but good times and adventures find their way to her. It really is a wonderfully cozy read. My husband overheard some of the book and remarked at how well written the prose is. Elizabeth Enright also wrote Gone-Away Lake and other well-known children's books.
Both this book and the previous one, The Prairie Thief, are serving as wholesome antidotes for us right now. My daughter had the misfortune of reading the book Twelve by Lauren Myracle. My daughter had recently read the book Eleven by the same author and was longing for the next installment. It wasn't to be found at the library so (where I could pre-read/skim it), and unbeknowst to me, she talked her father into buying her a copy from Amazon. Parents beware! Ms. Myracle has taken it on herself to explain to young girls everywhere the functioning of male anatomy. She also has a very scary (to a young girl on the verge of adolescence) incident involving tampons. This book has a cartoony cover and is being marketed to girls ages 10 and up. My daughter was so traumatized by this book that she came to me sobbing and it took me awhile to get out of her what she had read. It took several days for her to get over this. She'd come to me, "Mommy, those bad feelings are coming because I remembered the book!" And I'd have to hug her a long time and talk gently to her. Now my daughter has been told the facts of life, so it is not like I am remiss in that regard, but this book really upset her. I believe it is the sort of book that really is priming kids to read more titillating, salacious stuff later in their teen years. The sort of book that makes sex into something to giggle and gossip about. It hardens girls to think their virtue is cheap and that everybody knows more, is doing it, etc. Thanks, but no thanks, Ms. Myracle. I do not appreciate you butting into my daughter's life, seducing her with your story-telling abilities and then freaking her out. To hell with you, I say. To hell with all those people who exploit young children like this by deceitfully taking away their innocence in such a candy-coated, cunning way. So many of the books aimed at middle schoolers do this. I remember reading Judy Blume and feeling dirty afterwards. Ms. Myracle even references Blume's books. I guess that was her salute to an author she's obviously trying to emulate. Sorry, ladies, you'll get no respect from me! Crass, shallow interlopers you are! Get your fat noses out of my daughter's life! Who are you to appoint yourselves my daughter's sex ed teachers? Presumptuous, officious and exploitative, that's what I think of you!
But Thimble Summer soothed us with its intelligent, authentic, untrendy heroine. Absorbed us with the deep feelings of Garnet, the feelings of love and security that wafted from its atmosphere and characters. We snuggled up together, shared and bonded. Thank you Elizabeth Enright, for your gift that healed! Thank you for Thimble Summer! And it made me in retrospect, really appreciate Melissa Wiley's The Prairie Thief, all the more.
For more book reviews go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.
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