The Golden Day

When their teacher goes missing during an outing, eleven girls grapple with the aftermath in this haunting, exquisitely told psychological thriller.The Vietnam War rages overseas but back home, in a...

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When their teacher goes missing during an outing, eleven girls grapple with the aftermath in this haunting, exquisitely told psychological thriller.

The Vietnam War rages overseas but back 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 during a school outing. 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 crafted prose that shimmers and fades, Ursula Dubosarsky reveals how a single shared experience can alter the course of young lives for ever. Part gripping thriller, part ethereal tale of innocence lost, The Golden Day is a poignant study of fear and friendship, and of what it take to come of age with courage.

ISBN: 9781406354201
Age range: from 12
Length: 0 pages
Price: £6.99

Publication date: 17 July 2014
Imprint: Walker Books
Weight: 400.00gr

Ursula Dubosarsky is an award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults. About The Golden Day, her first book for Walker, she says, "The little girls watch, wonder, respond, change and grow –and then they're gone, for ever. This element of the story, I suppose, is at least partly autobiographical. But, as I say – all of our teachers come home safe and sound in the end." Ursula lives in Australia.

In a stunning feat of perspective, Dubosarsky inhabits all 11 girls at once, snaking through a thousand small joys and triumphs and fears and petty grudges as they absorb life's bleakest truths as well as their own complicity in them... This is a masterful look at children's numb surprise to the most unsavoury of adult developments. ~Booklist (starred review)

Laced with humor amid a steady feeling of dread, the atmospheric narrative chillingly evokes lurking forces capable of tarnishing even the most golden and innocent of days. ~Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Chilling, elegant, atmospheric... Ms Dubosarsky deftly conveys the confusion of childhood, the strangeness of things half-glimpsed and only partly understood. With quiet brilliance she evokes the distinct personalities of the classmates..."The Golden Day" is the sort of book that churns comething up deep inside the reader; it will be as hard for an adult to forget as the young people ages 12 and older for whom it is intended. ~The Wall Street Journal

Through precise, vivid descriptions, the third-person narrative evokes the contrast between the girls' cloistered school lives and the hard realities of the outside world... Read this slender mystery for the meticulous prose and characterization... ~Kirkus Reviews