image of person or book cover 2084786947047223450.jpg
This image has been sourced from online
y separately published work icon The Sun on the Stubble single work   children's fiction   humour   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1961... 1961 The Sun on the Stubble
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'From the classic Australian children's author. Originally pubished in 1961, this is the coming-of-age story of a boy and his immigrant family in Depression-era Australia: Bruno Gunther lives on a farm in South Australia, where adventures spring up like wheat shoots. He has to cope with his stern dad, his mother and family--and trickiest of all is the new teacher in town, who is too alert for comfort. Then there are the local arguements, that all seem to flare up around complicated bits of machinery, like water pumps and cars. All they really need is a little help from Bruno to sort everything out . . . . For young readers ages 9-14. This novel and three others by Thiele inspired an Australian TV series, 'Sun on the Stubble': The Valley Between, Uncle Gustav's Ghosts & The Shadow on the Hills.' 

(Publication summary)

Exhibitions

18005805
18005672
VIEW ALL EXHIBITIONS

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Sun on the Stubble The Valley Between Noel Robinson , ABC Television (publisher), ( dir. Robert Marchand ) Lindfield Australia Germany : Film Australia ABC Television ZDF , 1996 Z1057268 1996 series - publisher film/TV

Six-part drama series about a fourteen-year-old German immigrant, Bruno Gunther, growing up in a small wheat-farming community in Australia during the 1930s. Based on Colin Thiele's novels The Valley Between, Sun on the Stubble, Uncle Gustav's Ghosts, and The Shadow on the Hills.

Notes

  • Adapted for the 1995 audio recording 'The Sun on the Stubble' by Sheryn Dee, published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Narrated by Ron Haddrick.
  • Loaded from LuRees, UC identifiers :BRN: 130072 RID1: aabn86237901
  • The first in the semi-autobiographical group of novels about Thiele's boyhood in a South Australian farming community.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Adelaide, South Australia,: Rigby , 1961 .
      image of person or book cover 2084786947047223450.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online
      Extent: 171p.
      Reprinted: 1967 , 1969
    • Adelaide, South Australia,: Rigby , 1973 .
      image of person or book cover 5485100275984699758.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online
      Extent: 171p.
      ISBN: 0851794165
      Series: Seal Books Rigby (publisher), series - publisher Seal Books is a paperback imprint of Rigby. The popular paperback series was initiated Vernon Branson 1968.
    • Adelaide, South Australia,: Rigby , 1981 .
      image of person or book cover 6343151212561688313.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 171p.
      ISBN: 0727015591
    • Adelaide, South Australia,: Rigby , 1985 .
      Extent: 171p.
      Edition info: pbk. ed.
      Reprinted: 1986 , 1988
      ISBN: 0727018388
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Weldon , 1989 .
      image of person or book cover 3933463590131720560.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online
      Extent: 172p.
      ISBN: 1863020446 (pbk.)
    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Lansdowne , 1994 .
      image of person or book cover 4924874687250321102.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 172p.
      Reprinted: 1996
      ISBN: 1863020446
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Sun on the Stubble Omnibus Colin Thiele , Sydney : Lansdowne , 1996 Z1057245 1996 selected work children's fiction children's Sydney : Lansdowne , 1996
    • Montville, Nambour area, Nambour - Palmwoods - Yandina area, Sunshine Coast Hinterland, South East Queensland, Queensland,: Walter McVitty Books , 1996 .
      image of person or book cover 3348235796939330311.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Alternative title: Sun on the Stubble
      Extent: 216p.
      Description: col. illus.
      ISBN: 0949183997
    • Frenchs Forest, Killarney Heights - Frenchs Forest area, Sydney Northeastern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: New Holland , 2001 .
      image of person or book cover 3989548999385870257.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 171p.
      ISBN: 1864367504
    • Chatswood, Chatswood - Gordon - Castlecrag area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: New Holland , 2011 .
      image of person or book cover 1440651297705007627.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 182p.p.
      ISBN: 9781742571140, 174257114X
Alternative title: Schafdiebe in der Nacht : Bubenjahre auf einer australischen Farm
Language: German
    • Zurich,
      c
      Switzerland,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Stuttgart,
      c
      Germany,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,      :       Rascher ,       1964 .
      image of person or book cover 7821427837926498912.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online
      Extent: 181p.
VIEW PUBLICATION DETAILS FOR ALL VERSIONS ()

Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Braille.
Find library holdings on Trove

Related Works

Dad Drains the Oil (from The Sun on the Stubble) Colin Thiele , 1954 extract children's fiction humour children's (The Sun on the Stubble)
— Appears in: The Bulletin , 9 June vol. 75 no. 3878 1954; (p. 20,27) The Best of Colin Thiele 1980; (p. 7-15)
South Australia : Christmas in Harvest (from The Sun on the Stubble) Colin Thiele , 1966 extract children's fiction humour children's (The Sun on the Stubble)
— Appears in: The Australian Christmas 1966; (p. 182-183)
y separately published work icon Uncle Gustav's Ghosts Colin Thiele , Adelaide : Rigby , 1974 Z274019 1974 single work children's fiction humour children's

'Benny Geister's Uncle Gustav meets the first Unseen Presence on the Bethel Road, near the place where Maria Rollenberg and Marcus Kreutzer mysteriously disappeared on their wedding night half a century before. Maria, complete with wedding gown and veil, appears after a tin-kettling for two newlyweds. From then on the fun is fast and furious, as a succession of ghosts and ghoulies, phantom horses and poltergeists plague the Geister household and the community at large.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (New Holland 2005 edition).
y separately published work icon The Shadow on the Hills Colin Thiele , Adelaide : Rigby Opal , 1977 Z222087 1977 single work children's fiction children's

'Ebenezer Blitz, an eccentric hermit who lives in the Australian hills with his half-dingo, half-domesticated dog, evokes in young, high-spirited Bodo Schneider strong feelings of loyalty and compassion.'

Source: HarperCollins ed.
Cigarettes and Matches (from The Sun on the Stubble) Colin Thiele , 1980 extract children's fiction humour children's (The Sun on the Stubble)
— Appears in: The Best of Colin Thiele 1980; (p. 31-36)
VIEW ALL RELATED WORKS (9)

Works about this Work

Conversations : Colin Thiele and James Moloney James Moloney (interviewer), 1996 single work interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 11 no. 5 1996; (p. 12-15)
Untitled Howard George , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 40 no. 3 1996; (p. 37)
— Review of The Sun on the Stubble Colin Thiele , 1961 single work children's fiction
Prolific as Ever Terry O'Connor , 1996 single work column biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 June 1996; (p. wkd 8)
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery Brenda Niall , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176).
Colin Thiele : Universality in the Heart of Man Walter McVitty , 1981 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 197-226)
Untitled Howard George , 1996 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 40 no. 3 1996; (p. 37)
— Review of The Sun on the Stubble Colin Thiele , 1961 single work children's fiction
Recent Novels John McLaren , 1962 single work review
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 23 1962; (p. 55-57)
— Review of La Bora Philip Jones , 1961 single work novel ; The Scarlet Blossom 'Craig Stirling' , 1961 single work novel ; The Dyehouse Mena Calthorpe , 1961 single work novel ; Low Company Hugh Atkinson , 1961 single work novel ; The Sun on the Stubble Colin Thiele , 1961 single work children's fiction ; The Fringe Dwellers Nene Gare , 1961 single work novel ; A Stranger and Afraid George Turner , 1961 single work novel ; If Golde Rust H. H. Wilson , 1961 single work novel
Fiction Chronicle Harry Payne Heseltine , 1961 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , December vol. 20 no. 4 1961; (p. 474-491)
— Review of The Sun on the Stubble Colin Thiele , 1961 single work children's fiction
Conversations : Colin Thiele and James Moloney James Moloney (interviewer), 1996 single work interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 11 no. 5 1996; (p. 12-15)
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery Brenda Niall , 1990 single work criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176).
Prolific as Ever Terry O'Connor , 1996 single work column biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 June 1996; (p. wkd 8)
Colin Thiele : Universality in the Heart of Man Walter McVitty , 1981 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 197-226)
Colin Thiele: from Sun to Shadow Rosemary Wighton , 1978 single work criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time: The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , January no. 66 1978; (p. 2-9)
VIEW ALL WORKS ABOUT (8)

Awards

VIEW ALL AWARDS (1)
Last amended 7 May 2020 12:04:34
Subjects:
Settings:
  • South Australia,
  • Rural,
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X