The Golden Day

By: Ursula Dubosarsky

I have to start by saying that this cover is beautiful.  The golden, orange, and brown tones of the cover melt together and form a watercolor that fits the book perfectly.  While the cover is a rather simple scene -- a path leading to two people off in the distance, the overall picture is beautiful.  The way the leaves border the top make it seem as if we are peering into one single moment shared by the two people off in the distance.  This is exactly what the book is like.  It is a short book with about 150 pages.  It is a glimpse into the life of eleven school girls in Australia during the Vietnam War.  The writing style matches the beauty of the cover.  Ursula Dubosarsky writes from the eyes of the school girls, Cubby in particular.  Cubby seems to be a little scared and confused.  Although it never states her confusion or her fear clearly the writing brought it out so that I felt it rather than saw it in Cubby.  The book starts with a teacher, Miss Renshaw, saying that they are going to a nearby garden to think about death because of a man that was hanged.  In the garden they meet up with someone the often see there, Morgan.  Although, on this particular day, they go further than the garden.  They go to a cave near the beach.  A lot of the girls are scared when they go in the cave and after a few minutes they run out.  They leave Miss Renshaw and Morgan in the cave.  After some time they return to the school without Miss Renshaw.  For most of the book after this the school children have to decide whether or not to tell people where they went because Miss Renshaw had told them to never tell anyone about Morgan.  The entire book takes place in just over a week until the last few pages which is at the end of the girls education.  Four of the original eleven finish their last exam but are still confused about what happened to Miss Renshaw.  One thought of Cubby's shows what the book is about and how it is written.

"That afternoon, they felt no astonishment at any of it.  Perhaps a butterfly, too, is unimpressed by its transformation from those wormlike beginnings.  Why shouldn't it crawl out from the darkness, spread its tiny wings, and fly off into the windy mystery of the trees? The grub lies quietly in its soft cocoon, silent, thinking.  It knows everything."

I would give this book a 3.  It is a beautifully written and interesting because of the writing.  Although I did find it interesting, I had no problem putting it down and walking away.  It held my attention but did not grab at it.  I think that not grabbing at my attention worked well with the writing style and was neither a good thing nor a bad thing.  It was good but not amazing.  It was like a bite of an apple.  The apple is juicy and full of flavor which tastes really sweet.  Once the bite is over there is no pull to take another but that is only because the first was sastisfying.  Like the cover the bite was a simple glimpse of a larger whole.