Author: Ursula Dubosarsky
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Copyright Year: 2011
Review By: Sylvia Loader and Sue Bursztynski
Book Synopsis:
There were only eleven of them, like eleven sisters all the same age in a large family. Because it was such a very small class, they had a very small classroom, perched at the very top of the school – up four flights of stairs, up in the high sky, like a colony of little birds nesting on a cliff.
‘Today, girls,’ said Miss Renshaw, ‘we shall go out into the beautiful Gardens and think about death.’
Review by Sylvia Loader
“The Golden Day” is set in a private girls’ school in Sydney in 1967 and is a charming and mysterious book for girls and young adults. There are eleven girls in the class and they are like sisters in a large family. Each of them has a distinct personality and we follow their reactions with interest.
This is a book about death and disappearance, yet it is not morbid. It deals with those left behind after a disappearance, and how they cope with the experience. When we read ‘Today, girls,’ said Miss Renshaw, ‘we shall go out into the beautiful Gardens and think about death.’ their teacher is literally speaking the truth though she cannot know what is to happen. In the beautiful gardens they meet Morgan, gardener and poet, and he takes them into the cave. Do we ever understand what happens next? The girls are left with their memories as they face the many enquiries from their school and the police.
The second part of the book, set in 1975, is almost an epilogue. We meet some of the girls again as they are finishing their final exam before leaving school for ever. Afterwards, as they enjoy tea together, they reach some sort of conclusion regarding the events nine years ago. But Cubby, the central character, is not swayed by the thoughts of the others. She is asking herself if anybody is ever really dead.
In different ways this book reminds me of both “Picnic at Hanging Rock” in its element of unsolved mystery, and “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” with its outspoken and eccentric teacher trying to educate her girls in more than the curriculum. This is a compelling read and a book that leaves you wondering.
Review by Sue Bursztynski
“There were only eleven of them, like eleven sisters all the same age in a large family. Because it was such a very small class, they had a very small classroom, perched at the very top of the school – up four flights of stairs, up in the high sky, like a colony of little birds nesting on a cliff.
‘Today girls,’ said Miss Renshaw, ‘we shall go out into the beautiful Gardens and think about death.’’
And go they do, and meet Morgan, a poet who may be more than he seems. By the end of the day – the February day in 1967 when Ronald Ryan was executed – they have gone to some secret caves, where Miss Renshaw and her poet disappear without trace. Despite police searches and inquiries, they never reappear. Each of the girls has her own theory, but eight years go by without any one of them proving correct and one day, just after their final exams, four of them have an unexpected meeting which seems to explain it all, but doesn’t. I won’t create any spoilers here, you will have to read it yourself.
If you’re looking for a whodunnit with clues you can work out and an explanation, you won’t get it here. This book is very much Picnic At Hanging Rock, which leaves you to make up your own mind. The story is seen from the viewpoint of Cubby, one of the girls, who does come to her own conclusion at the end, but if her conclusion is correct, there are other questions that remain unanswered.
It’s interesting that the story begins in 1967, an eventful year – in Australia alone, there was the execution of Ronald Ryan, the Commonwealth referendum on Indigenous Australians and at the end of the year, the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt. Overseas, there was plenty happening too, such as the Six Day War in the Middle East. But the novel refers only to Ronald Ryan in the portion set in 1967, because that is all that matters to Miss Renshaw, the teacher who disappears and the girls are, after all, only ten years old at the time, in a sheltered atmosphere. The last scene is set on November 11, 1975 – yes, that Remembrance Day! There is a brief reference to the disappearance of Juanita Nielson, but not to the dismissal of the Whitlam government, which happened on that same day. In this case, the disappearance is more important than the politics of the time. It’s a nice touch.
In an afterword, the author lists her inspirations, including a painting by Charles Blackman which itself makes her think of Picnic At Hanging Rock.
It’s not an adventure, it’s not a murder-mystery, or not of a kind you might recognise as such, it may or may not be a ghost story. It’s very literary and no doubt those schools which choose to teach it will find plenty of discussion material here for good readers. As I write this, it is on the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s 2012 shortlist, in the older readers category.
Stand by for the judges’ final decision in late August.
And go they do, and meet Morgan, a poet who may be more than he seems. By the end of the day – the February day in 1967 when Ronald Ryan was executed – they have gone to some secret caves, where Miss Renshaw and her poet disappear without trace. Despite police searches and inquiries, they never reappear. Each of the girls has her own theory, but eight years go by without any one of them proving correct and one day, just after their final exams, four of them have an unexpected meeting which seems to explain it all, but doesn’t. I won’t create any spoilers here, you will have to read it yourself.
If you’re looking for a whodunnit with clues you can work out and an explanation, you won’t get it here. This book is very much Picnic At Hanging Rock, which leaves you to make up your own mind. The story is seen from the viewpoint of Cubby, one of the girls, who does come to her own conclusion at the end, but if her conclusion is correct, there are other questions that remain unanswered.
It’s interesting that the story begins in 1967, an eventful year – in Australia alone, there was the execution of Ronald Ryan, the Commonwealth referendum on Indigenous Australians and at the end of the year, the disappearance of Prime Minister Harold Holt. Overseas, there was plenty happening too, such as the Six Day War in the Middle East. But the novel refers only to Ronald Ryan in the portion set in 1967, because that is all that matters to Miss Renshaw, the teacher who disappears and the girls are, after all, only ten years old at the time, in a sheltered atmosphere. The last scene is set on November 11, 1975 – yes, that Remembrance Day! There is a brief reference to the disappearance of Juanita Nielson, but not to the dismissal of the Whitlam government, which happened on that same day. In this case, the disappearance is more important than the politics of the time. It’s a nice touch.
In an afterword, the author lists her inspirations, including a painting by Charles Blackman which itself makes her think of Picnic At Hanging Rock.
It’s not an adventure, it’s not a murder-mystery, or not of a kind you might recognise as such, it may or may not be a ghost story. It’s very literary and no doubt those schools which choose to teach it will find plenty of discussion material here for good readers. As I write this, it is on the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s 2012 shortlist, in the older readers category.
Stand by for the judges’ final decision in late August.