''Thimble Summer'' is a novel by Elizabeth Enright that won the 1939 Newbery Medal. It is set in

Depression-era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Financial contagion, ...

rural

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. The very evening that nine-year-old Garnet Linden finds a silver thimble in a dried-up riverbed near the farm where she lives, the

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

that has threatened her family's financial future is broken with a rainstorm. The days that follow are filled with exciting events: the Lindens come by money to rebuild their barn, Garnet's

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

wins a blue ribbon at the fair, and a young boy named Eric comes to live with the Lindens as their

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

son. When the time comes for the show, Garnet is stuck on the Ferris wheel. She can't get down for almost another hour, and the show starts in thirty minutes. The summer is so wonderful that Garnet comes to believe that the thimble had magical powers, and she vows to remember that time as her "thimble summer." In another chapter, "Locked In," Garnet and her friend, Citronella, stay too long at the library and are locked in for the night.

References

1938 American novels 1938 children's books American children's novels Newbery Medal–winning works Novels set in Wisconsin Great Depression novels Farrar & Rinehart books Children's books set in Wisconsin Children's books set in the 1930s {{1930s-child-novel-stub