person or book cover
Courtesy of Penguin.
y separately published work icon Thursday's Child single work   novel   young adult  
Issue Details: First known date: 2000... 2000 Thursday's Child
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

The creature held a great bundle of something tied up in a rag. For a moment we stared, not recognising him, but who else could it have been, who else but wandering Tin. We saw his naked limbs, his waxy skin, his discoloured hair, his hooking razor-sharp nails. He raised lashy eyes to us and we saw a face on its way to another world. Da murmured, "Jesus." Through the long years of the Great Depression, Harper Flute watches with a child's clear eyes her family's struggle to survive in a hot and impoverished landscape. As life on the surface grows harsher, her brother Tin escapes ever deeper into a subterranean world of darkness and troubling secrets, until his memory becomes a myth barely whispered around the countryside. (Source: Trove)

Adaptations

y separately published work icon Thursday's Child Eva Di Cesare , Sandra Eldridge , Tim McGarry , Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People , 2009 Sydney : Currency Press , 2011 Z1836419 2009 single work drama young adult

'Thursday's Child is Tin, born on a Thursday and like the old nursery rhyme, has far to go. A strange and lonely child who digs, his wanderings take him underneath the earth into the subterranean tunnels that he's pre-destined to roam. Told by his sister Harper Flute, it is a story of an Australian farming family's strength as they battle their way through the great depression of the 1930's. A surreal and epic piece of theatre that explores the themes of memory, fate, family camaraderie and the spirit of determination in a time of great change.'

Source: Monkey Baa.

Affiliation Notes

  • This work is affiliated with the AustLit subset Asian-Australian Children's Literature and Publishing because it has Chinese and Japanese translations.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Penguin ,
      2000 .
      person or book cover
      Courtesy of Penguin.
      Extent: 223p.
      ISBN: 0140297324
    • Cambridge, Massachusetts,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Candlewick Press ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 7193363812243724308.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 261p.
      ISBN: 0763616206
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Walker Books [London] ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 279641852113137242.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 217p.
      ISBN: 0744559960
    • Cambridge, Massachusetts,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Candlewick Press ,
      2003 .
      image of person or book cover 4456611787626928180.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 261p.
      Edition info: 1st pbk ed.
      ISBN: 0763622036 9780763622039
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin Books , 2014 .
      image of person or book cover 4430060476188941510.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 240p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 27 August 2014
      ISBN: 9780143571766
Alternative title: Het Tunnelkind
Language: Dutch
    • Antwerp, Belgium, Western Europe, Europe,: Amsterdam,
      c
      Netherlands,
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Houtekiet ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 8162516734222011342.png
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 175p.
      ISBN: 9052406863

Other Formats

  • Also sound recording.

Works about this Work

Page to Performance : Children's Books Adapted for the Stage Nicola Robinson , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , March vol. 27 no. 1 2012; (p. 8-11)
Strange Beasts : Sonya Hartnett's Midnight Zoo Geordie Williamson , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Monthly , August no. 59 2010; (p. 62-65)
Borderland Children: Reflections on Narrative Abjection Christine Wilkie-Stibbs , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Lion and the Unicorn , September vol. 30 no. 3 2006; (p. 316-336)
This work engages with Australian, American and English children's literature using the theoretical approaches of Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva and Michel Foucault.
Sonya Hartnett James Phelan (interviewer), 2005 single work interview
— Appears in: Literati : Australian Contemporary Literary Figures Discuss Fear, Frustrations and Fame 2005; (p. 115-130)
Her Dark Materials Nikki Barrowclough , 2005 single work biography
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 26 February 2005; (p. 38-41)
Untitled Lee Finkelstein , 2001 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , May vol. 45 no. 2 2001; (p. 23)

— Review of Thursday's Child Sonya Hartnett , 2000 single work novel
Frailty, Resilience and Loss Rosemary Williamson , 2003 single work review
— Appears in: Dotlit : The Online Journal of Creative Writing , August vol. 4 no. 1 2003;

— Review of Thursday's Child Sonya Hartnett , 2000 single work novel
Untitled Lyn Linning , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 15 no. 4 2000; (p. 36)

— Review of Thursday's Child Sonya Hartnett , 2000 single work novel
Hartnett Aims a Tale Squarely at Adults Stephen Matthews , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 16 September 2000; (p. 19)

— Review of Thursday's Child Sonya Hartnett , 2000 single work novel ; Water Colours Sarah Walker , 2000 single work novel
Stylish Australian Works are Bigger Than Their Genre Dianne Dempsey , 2000 single work review
— Appears in: The Sunday Age , 13 August 2000; (p. 11)

— Review of Thursday's Child Sonya Hartnett , 2000 single work novel ; Nukkin Ya Phillip Gwynne , 2000 single work novel
The Children's Book Council of Australia Annual Awards 2001 2001 single work column
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 45 no. 3 2001; (p. 2-12)
Fictional Fathers : Gender Representation in Children's Fiction Wendy Michaels , Donna Gibbs , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 12 no. 3 2002; (p. 35-45)

Wendy Michaels and Donna Gibbs analyse several Australian children's texts regarding the 'pattern and trends in relation to the representation of father and father-figures' (37). They believe it is crucial for young adult readers to develop a critical awareness of 'the subtle processes at work in the fiction they are reading' because of the significance textual representation plays in the construction of child-adolescent identity (42-43). The discussion refers to previous studies concerning the construction of masculinity and femininity and the role of children's fiction as a socialising agent regarding appropriate gender roles providing a framework for the interrogation of textual constructions and representations of the father/child relationship. A close reading of Dogs and The Simple Gift precedes a shorter discussion of the novels Touch Me, Thursday's Child, Wolf on the Fold and Fighting Ruben Wolf, and leads Michaels and Gibbs to contend that none of the fathers in the stories are portayed as having a strong relationship with their children and they draw an interesting parallel to the roles ascribed to wicked step-mothers, arguing that currently, young adult readers are presented with models of masculine behaviour that reinforce cultural stereotypes of fathers as essentially ineffectual or morally bankrupt - or both (42). Effective parenting is often directed at surrogate children rather than biological children while it is the serious flaws and shortcomings of the father-child relationship that are of central concern in the novels discussed (40).

Her Dark Materials Nikki Barrowclough , 2005 single work biography
— Appears in: Good Weekend , 26 February 2005; (p. 38-41)
Sonya Hartnett James Phelan (interviewer), 2005 single work interview
— Appears in: Literati : Australian Contemporary Literary Figures Discuss Fear, Frustrations and Fame 2005; (p. 115-130)
Borderland Children: Reflections on Narrative Abjection Christine Wilkie-Stibbs , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Lion and the Unicorn , September vol. 30 no. 3 2006; (p. 316-336)
This work engages with Australian, American and English children's literature using the theoretical approaches of Judith Butler, Julia Kristeva and Michel Foucault.
Last amended 2 Jul 2015 13:39:35
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