The Golden Day

by Ursula Dubosarsky

Hardcover, 2013

Status

Available

Call number

823.92

Genres

Young Adult

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Candlewick (2013), Edition: Reprint, 160 pages

Description

Mystery. Thriller. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: When their teacher goes missing during an outing, eleven girls grapple with the aftermath in this haunting, exquisitely told psychological mystery. The Vietnam War rages overseas, but back at home, in a year that begins with the hanging of one man and ends with the drowning of another, eleven schoolgirls embrace their own chilling history when their teacher abruptly goes missing on a field trip. Who was the mysterious poet they had met in the Garden? What actually happened in the seaside cave that day? And most important�who can they tell about it? In beautifully shimmering prose, Ursula Dubosarsky reveals how a single shared experience can alter the course of young lives forever. Part gripping thriller, part ethereal tale of innocence lost, The Golden Day is a poignant study of fear and friendship, and of what it takes to come of age with courage..… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member MrsSewell

I found this to be a well-crafted story that has an eerie dreamlike quality to it. It begins the day the last man is hung in Australia and is about the experience of eleven young schoolgirls whose teacher mysteriously disappears when out one day on an excursion they have been told to keep a secret.

While I wasn’t disappointed I felt a sense of wanting more from this finely written novel.

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LibraryThing member Bellydancer

Miss Renshaw was the teacher of eleven young girls, all of them the same age like a large family.
While on an outing to the gardens to think about death, Miss Renshaw introduces them to a man, a poet, Morgan.
The girls are told not to tell anyone about their visits to the gardens ‘it will be our

secret’ Miss Renshaw says. But after returning to the school without their teacher the girls realise they have to tell the secret, but who to without getting into trouble.
What follows is inexplicable, shocking, a scandal. What really happened that day? And do the little girls know more than they are letting on?

A beautifully, well written story that takes you into the mind of these young girls.

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LibraryThing member jennifermary

A class of girls visit a garden in Sydney with their teacher. Their guide is a young man they suspect their teacher is attracted to. The girls decide to go back to school. Their teacher doesn't return. It is set on the day of the last hanging in Australia. Echoes picnic at hanging rock, except its

the other way around, the teacher mysteriously disappears into a rock cave. She does return at the end of the story. Good especially for girls.

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LibraryThing member PeggyDean

Undeveloped characters and an ample supply of promising leads that went nowhere kept this from being a winner for me. The idea of students keeping quiet out of loyalty to their teacher can only go so far. The concept was intriguing; perhaps the short length was the reason I felt shortchanged by

this book.

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LibraryThing member mamzel

This was a marvelous little book with wonderful turns of phrases and simple, innocent characters.

A group of school girls deal with the disappearance of their teacher on a school trip. They are torn between their loyalty to their teacher and informing on her. They also feel the pain of abandonment

since the teacher left them with no clue of why. They all deal with growing up that year as they become acquainted with the outside world with news about a hanging in Melbourne and the Vietnam War.

Very fast read but one that will stay with me for quite a while.

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LibraryThing member delphica

This is a very short, sweet little book, and this is a strong three stars.

In a very loose sense, it's about a teacher who goes mysteriously missing while on a outing with her class of schoolgirls in the late 1960s. It's the kind of book where much more focus is given to how this impacts the girls

in her classroom. It's a very internal book, presented from the point of view of one of the students, who observes the events leading up to the disappearance and then the reactions of the other girls, their parents, and other teachers. The language is clear and sets such a specific tone, it's all done very well.

There is something a bit odd about it. Given the events of the plot, that's supposed to be odd, and it's such a brief book, it's more like a sketch of the story. The author does such a good job of mimicking a voice from that time, it's almost eerie, you could really believe this manuscript was found in a vault. I'm pretty sure it's being marketed as YA, but I'm not entirely clear on who the intended audience is - it almost seems more like "adults who read YA" because I think it helps to be a little nostalgic for a certain kind of girls school story. Then again, I was also the teenager who passed over current books (well, I read them, just not over and over again) to hunt down the outdated teen adventures and romances that hadn't been checked out of my library in years, so maybe there are still those girls today.

I am in love with the cover art, the designer did a fabulous job of capturing the style of books for girls from that era, it's so impressive and I'm going to be extremely sour if they change it for the paperback. It really complements the time in which the book is set.

I'm not sure if it's some combination of the subject matter, or the Australian location, but it makes one think of Picnic at Hanging Rock. It's really only very vaguely similar.

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LibraryThing member Beamis12

This novel takes place in 1967, in Australia where eleven girls and their teacher and a man named Morgan take an impromptu field trip to a cave to see paintings supposedly done by the aborigines. Their girls come back, their teacher disappears.

This book and its haunting tone drew me in, the eleven

young girls would lose their young innocence that day. The tragedy of these events would color there lives in different ways. Cubby is an inquisitive young girl, very impressionable and able to see and discern things that the other cannot. She believes her teacher is never coming back, a few of the girls believe she will return. Towards the end of the book, flour of the girls including Cubby are in a restaurant celebrating the end of their school days, when they see something they never thought to see again. But is it real? Are there any clues to what really happened to Miss Renshaw. Where did Morgan go? Is the story they are told at the end true?

The greatest draw and alternately the greatest set back in this novel is the ambiguity. The tone as I mentioned is haunting, almost dreamy. Very different book, written for a YA audience but I can really see it being a book read in a classroom, since there is no overt sex or drugs, just a haunting story of how a tragedy effected those involved. I admit, I am still pondering this one.

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LibraryThing member lauren.g.coleman

For such a small, short book...it really packs a punch. The whole time I was reading this (it only takes a few hours) I kept thinking...This is going to win an award...this is soooo well written...this is such an important book! No spoilers here though. Just note, the author will explain it all to

you at the end. Not what happened to the teacher...but why it it so important.

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LibraryThing member fromthecomfychair

Something terrible happens, but then nothing happens. This event supposedly changes the lives of all the girls involved, but the author doesn't make it clear how. A friendship between two girls ends, but why is unclear. I can't imagine any young adult reader who would be attracted to the old

fashioned cover. I don't know why my library bought this.

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LibraryThing member Nancy.Castaldo

Review coming in the Historical Novel Review.

LibraryThing member readingbeader

This short book unsettled me. Even after waiting a couple of days to write my review, I'm still not sure how I feel, or if I understood it.

This book is based on the facts that children will keep adult secrets, even when they shouldn't; a group of children who experience the same tragic event, bond

in a way that changes them, permanently. After their teacher, Miss Renshaw, disappears, Cubby, one of the students, sees so many things for which she has no background knowledge. Her innocence makes her an unreliable narrator. I'm still wondering if I should view the story through her eyes, or my own jaded ones. Icara, another more realistic student, due to her own circumstances, sees things in a totally different way, but we aren't in her head. Miss Renshaw quotes follow.

P. 15 "Far flung."
P. 19 "We won't mention Morgan. Will we?"
P. 21 "Save your tears for greater sorrows, girls."
P. 24 "the world needs dreamers, not realists."
P. 68 "Not now. Not ever."

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LibraryThing member Kristelh

A very short story by Australian author, set in Australia. Girls from this school go on a field trip to the gardens with the school teacher and their teacher goes missing. This is a story of how one deals with secrets and friendships. set in the 70s, Vietnam war and hippies.

LibraryThing member jennybeast

Strange little book of mysteries -- enjoyed the voice, enjoyed the Australian setting, enjoyed the ineffable unknowns. Lovely.

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