Blog Post #2
For my second post, I would like to address the importance of using children’s literature as a gateway to helping children understand trauma and adverse events. Ursula Dubosarsky uses her brilliant novel, “The Golden Day”, to help children and adults alike to see how even one traumatic event in a child’s life can still ruin even the most “golden” of days. “The Golden Day” follows the responses of eleven school girls who witness the disappearance of their beloved school teacher, Miss Renshaw. Dubosarsky allows the audience to witness the bonds that unite the eleven girls in the mist of their shard tragedy, while also baring witness to the growth and change that all the girls experience, as they move on from the last moment they last saw Miss Renshaw.
Dubosarsky mention in her authors note how the painting by Charles Blackman, Floating Schoolgirl, was the seed for her book, but other events in Australia during the 1960’s also were a part of the inspiration behind “The Golden Day” (Dubosarsky, 2015, p. 152). “Some were grim – the schoolgirl from New South Wales shot dead in the chapel by the artist Lennie Lawson in 1962; disappearance of Juanita Nielsen from Kings Cross, Sydney, in 1975; the murder of nine-year-old Samantha Knight in 1986” (Dubosarsky, 2015, p. 152). Dubosarsky’s use of factual Australian history for her novel created a more lifelike, and understandable plot for the audience.
Where the novel really starts to show the effects of the trauma is when the eleven girls return to their classroom and are expected to explain what has happened to their teacher. All of the girls remain in shock, completely silent, until one little girl begins the dialogue for all eleven of them (Dubosarsky, 2015, p. 48-49). Here is where the girls begin to bond over the events and make sense of it for themselves. After most of the girls chime in to attempt an explanation over what had transpired, they feel connected to one another in secrecy and protection. Later, the bonds begin to become stretched and warped as questions are still being asked and one of the eleven girls breaks their silent secrecy and discloses all she knows to the school counselor (Dubosarsky, 2015, p. 82-85). Dubosarsky hits the message home when she fast forwards the novel to 1975, when the girls are at the end of their school careers (Dubosarsky, 2015, p. 127). Here, she focuses on the event and how even years later, the eleven girls can still remember even the smallest details about that day. The most shocking part of the book is in chapter 19 when Cubby – one of the eleven girls – describes an interaction where she believes she was talking to Miss Renshaw again in person. Cubby describes the conversation she was having wiliest also recognizing the clothing that Miss Renshaw was wearing as well. It is not until the end of the chapter that Dubosarsky allows the audience to know that this is just a figment of imagination as Miss Renshaw is wearing the exact same outfit as the day of the disappearance – including the golden charm necklace – which was found in the cave following the disappearance.
Dubosarsky opens up the dialogue with her novel, “The Golden Day”, to both children and adults to help understand the trauma and everlasting agony that stays with children when something like a teacher’s disappearance occurs.
Work Cited:
Dubosarsky, U. (2015). The Golden Day. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.