The Golden Day
Ursula Dubosarsky
2013 by Candlewick Press
ISBN – 9780763663995
Genre – Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction
Age – Middle School
2.4 Stars
A class of girls take a field trip to the gardens near their school. There they meet the poet that their teacher is enamored with, and venture into the seaside caves to hear him tell a story. Things get a little scary when the girls emerge from the caves but their teacher and the poet never do. When they go back to school without their teacher, the investigation begins. Will they ever find out what happened to the teacher?
This book just wasn’t very interesting. It is supposed to be a mystery, however, it didn’t feel very mysterious. The way in which it was written didn’t actually make me care about what happened to the teacher and the poet. To be quite honest, I didn’t much care about any of the characters either. It feels much more like a coming of age tale that is missing the back story to draw you into the characters. Everyone just seems off. It is set in Australia during the Vietnam War, and maybe just maybe, this is an time and a place that is so far disconnected from myself, that I can’t possibly understand. That being said, if I don’t understand it, will younger children understand? Maybe. Part of me feels like I am trying to take too much away, and that I should just let the book stand on its own, as it is. While that may be the case, it doesn’t mean that I have to truly enjoy it as it is.
A Curious Bookshelf 