Recently, I announced that I teamed up with my friend Faith Elizabeth Hough (who blogs HERE) to create a fun reading challenge called Vintage Kidlit Summer. If you missed any of the details on how this challenge works, just go here and you can catch up! Basically, we’re doing 12 categories over 12 weeks, and each week has its own theme. All you have to do is choose a vintage/classic book that fits that week’s theme, read it, and share about it! You can write about it on your blog, or you can post your thoughts on Instagram (or Twitter) as well, by using the hashtag #vintagekidlitsummer. And if you’re in need of recommendations for each week’s theme, check out this blog post!

Our first week’s theme was Summer Vibes, and I decided to read Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright. Her books are absolutely perfect for summer! And if you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, you know what a major Enright fan I am. I previously blogged about all of her novels here (I’ve read every single one), and I even discovered what appears to be the beginning of an unfinished third Gone-Away Lake book.

Here’s what I had to say about Thimble Summer on my blog a few years ago:

A Newbery medal winner, this slim book is perhaps the most well-known of Enright’s works. There are delicious moments like when Garnet and her best friend get accidentally locked in the library, and when Garnet goes to the county fair. A fresh breeze of a book! This is also her first novel for children.

The fun of this book (and Enright’s writing in general) is in the delightful details. The book opens during the drought that has come to the Wisconsin farm where Garnet lives with her family, so the moment when the rain finally arrives, “heavy and silver as a waterfall,” is a wonderful one. The section that takes place at the fair reminds me of my own experiences attending a Wisconsin county fair, of entering the “barnlike building” to look at “hundreds of jars of jelly and pickles on the shelves … cut flowers in vases and growing plants in pots … dozens of different kinds of cakes … Each had a little card beside it with the name of the lady who’d made it.” These details are so real to me.

Many trademark Elizabeth Enright motifs appear in Thimble Summer: stories-within-stories (where an older person recounts a tale from their childhood), a big local event that takes place at the book’s climax, a newcomer who joins the family, and all the small joys of childhood.

There isn’t much plot in Thimble Summer. Enright books tend to be light on plot, but her well-written characterizations tend to make up for that. The title of the story comes from the fact that Garnet finds a silver thimble right before the rain that ends the drought, and she realizes by the novel’s conclusion that the thimble must be the reason for her glorious, adventure-filled summer. Like other vintage children’s books, most of the chapters follow their own mini plot in an episodic style that I’m quite fond of.

If you haven’t read this book yet, please give it a try! Read all of Elizabeth Enright’s books! You will love them too. 🙂

Have you started your Vintage Kidlit Summer reading? If so, please leave a comment so we can chat!

I’ve been rereading the novels of Elizabeth Enright for the past few months, because they’re *so* re-readable and absolutely perfect for this time of year. For me, there is such a sense of delight in Enright’s familiar descriptions of summers in the countryside, of searching for butterflies and exploring old houses and finding arrowheads. The summers she spent on her uncle’s Wisconsin farm definitely influenced her writing and the way she observed nature and recorded it in both a realistic and whimsical manner.

In case you haven’t yet met her wondrous world of books, here’s an overview of her novels in chronological order of publication:

Thimble Summer (1938)

A Newbery medal winner, this slim book is perhaps the most well-known of Enright’s works. There are delicious moments like when Garnet and her best friend get accidentally locked in the library, and when Garnet goes to the county fair. A fresh breeze of a book! This is also her first novel for children.

The Sea Is All Around (1940)

A tribute to Maine and all its magic, this is a gentle story of a girl going to live with her aunt in a remote wilderness and making new friends. It has a delicate beauty to its gorgeous prose, and although it’s very hard to find, The Sea Is All Around is well worth the search!

The Saturdays (1941)

This book kicks off the Melendy Quartet series in grand style. At this point in Enright’s career, her writing was becoming a bit faster-paced, and the acceleration improves her already engaging prose. The four Melendy siblings pool their minimal allowances so that they can each enjoy a special Saturday outing of their own.

The Four-Story Mistake (1942)

The Melendys move from their New York City apartment building to a fabulous old home in the country, where they uncover a secret room that’s been boarded up for years—among other adventures! This story is even better on audio.

Then There Were Five (1944)

Here’s a quintessential portrait of a five children enjoying an old-fashioned summer—including stargazing, fruit canning, and all the glories of August—depicted with Enright’s usual stunning imagery.

Spiderweb for Two (1951)

My personal favorite of Enright’s books is this story you simply can’t put down, a gem that caps off the Melendy series. Part mystery and part ode to autumn, this book features the youngest of the four siblings on a humorous quest to unravel a mysterious string of riddles.

Gone-Away Lake (1957)

I recently revisited this classic tale of two cousins (and best friends) who discover a nearly abandoned resort community by the lake and some fascinating new friends who know all the stories of the village’s past.

Return to Gone-Away (1961)

We read this one last year as part of our Summer of Vintage Kid Lit, and I loved returning to Portia and Julian’s unforgettable adventures—this time as they explore and renovate a dilapidated mansion.

To say that I wish there were more Enright novels would be an understatement—there is just something so unique about her descriptions, metaphors, realistic characters, and settings.

I encourage you to pick up one of these in September! Summer is coming to a close, and it’s the perfect time to indulge in an Elizabeth Enright story. 🙂

Recently Read: The Kirsten series by Janet Shaw, The Meeting Place by Janette Oke and T. Davis Bunn, The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz

Currently Reading: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Cherry Ames: Department Store Nurse by Helen Wells