Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Thornhill
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Cambridge School of Art
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY:
http://pamsmy.blogspot.com/ * http://www.walker.co.uk/contributors/Pam-Smy-4774.aspx * http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/csoa/staff0/pam_smy.html * http://www.readingrants.org/2017/05/11/thornhill-by-pam-smy/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge School of Art, B.A., M.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author and illustrator; senior lecturer, Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, England. Also runs drawing and illustration workshops, and performs basic book making and binding. Formerly worked for publishers, including A&C Black, Egmont, Frances Lincoln, Hutchinson, Macmillan Educational, and Walker Books.
WRITINGS
Also illustrator of works by other authors, including Bob Cattell and Jon Agard, Butter-Finger, Frances Lincoln (London, England), 2006; Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Walker Books (London, England), 2006; Julia Donaldson, Follow the Swallow, Egmont Books (London, England), 2006; Bob Cattell and Jon Agard, Shine On, Butter-Finger, Frances Lincoln (London, England), 2007; Linda Newbery, Lob, David Fickling Books (Oxford, England), 2010; Bob Cattell and Jon Agard, Big City Butter-Finger, Frances Lincoln (London, England), 2010; Siobhan Dowd, The Ransom of Dond, David Fickling Books (Oxford, England), 2013; Penelope Lively, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, Folio Society (London, England), 2014; Linda Newbery, Brockenspectre, Penguin Random House (London, England), 2015.
SIDELIGHTS
Pam Smy is better known as an illustrator than as an author, and her debut novel, the ghost story Thornhill, tells its tale through a combination of words and pictures. Pictures came first in Smy’s career. “From the age of 10 onwards I lived mostly in rural areas, so much of my time was spent outside,” Smy explained in an interview in Words and Pictures. “I loved building dens in the garden or nature-spotting with my Usborne Spotter’s Guide in hand. My early years were in a mostly book-less house. I had an adored bind-up of Frances Hodgson Burnett novels – The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess. I read them over and over. I believed in being nice, that everything would turn out okay and that robins were good. In my teen years this evolved into wandering aimlessly down country lanes.”
Smy’s Thornhill is set in the same place, two different times. Its focus is on the old orphanage Thornhill Institute and it looks at the lives of Mary, a 1982 resident of the building who suffers from selective mutism and finds relief from the cruelty of her everyday life by making and playing with puppets. “In the present, lonely Ella is intrigued by Thornhill,” said a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “especially the girl she sometimes sees beyond the locked walls.” Ella finds her way past the barriers that separate her apartment home from the broken-down, barricaded old building and into Mary’s room, where she unearths and begins to read Mary’s diary entries. “The separate stories of these two desperately lonely girls,” stated Katie Bircher in a Horn Book review, “intertwine in a conclusion that’s both devastating and fitting.”
Smy uses both words and pictures to communicate the girls’ feelings. Mute Mary’s story is told through Mary’s diary entries, while Ella’s story is told entirely through captionless pictures. “Smy uses this hybrid format,” declared a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “to weave a chilling tale that highlights the importance of kindness.” “The brief and haunting journal entries provide a solid storyline to follow,” assessed Stacey Hayman in Voice of Youth Advocates, “while the stunning illustrations are full of clues that will encourage every reader to fill in details using their own imagination and to understand [the work] … from a unique perspective.” “The striking juxtaposition of Mary’s prose and the illustrations portraying Ella’s life,” asserted Stephanie Wilkes in School Library Journal, “will draw readers into this intriguing ghost story.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Horn Book, September-October, 2017, Katie Bircher, review of Thornhill, p. 107.
Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2017, review of Thornhill.
Publishers Weekly, June 5, 2017, review of Thornhill, p. 54; December 4, 2017, review of Thornhill, p. S116.
School Library Journal, July, 2017, Stephanie Wilkes, review of Thornhill, p. 83.
Voice of Youth Advocates, June, 2017, Stacey Hayman, review of Thornhill, p. 83.
ONLINE
Anglia Ruskin University Website, https://www.anglia.ac.uk/ (May 9, 2018), author profile.
Authors Aloud UK, https://authorsalouduk.co.uk/ (May 9, 2018), author profile.
Elizabeth Roy Literary Agency Website, http://elizabethroy.co.uk/ (May 9, 2018), author profile.
Pam Smy
I run drawing and illustration workshops, and give talks about my work and the subject of illustration.
Also do basic book making/binding as part of longer workshops.
I specialise in talking about the role of sketchbooks for the illustrator and the role of observational and imaginative drawing
I talk about my sketchbooks and how I used them for the Linda Newbery texts and the Siobhan Dowd text.
Type of Artist:
Author, Illustrator
Details
Preferred age range:
7yr olds - adults
No of sessions per day:
Maximum of 3 in a day.
Session Length:
45min-1hr for talks (extra for questions) 1 hour + for workshops, depending on content. can run full morning or whole day workshops.
Areas prepared to travel to:
Anywhere, if overnight expenses are met.
Transport:
Train.
Fees:
Please email us for details
Hold PLI (public liability insurance):
I have a previous CRB check
Website:
Pam Smy's blogspot
Titles include:
Illustrated books include:
Lob by Linda Newbery
The Ransom of Dond by Siobhan Dowd
The Brockenspectre by Linda Newbery
Follow the Swallow by Julia Donaldson
Published work:
Pam Smy's Amazon site
Pam Smy
I fell in love with drawing at the age of 19. That was a while ago. Since then hardly a day has gone by without drawing something I have seen or imagined. Drawing has given me the ability to capture stories and characters I see all around me, and I love that illustrating gives the opportunity to translate these everyday observations into recreating imagined worlds for authors.
I love stories with atmosphere, history or suspense, especially if those stories give me the opportunity to create strong characters and new spaces and places. I love short stories, books set in powerful landscapes, or rural and pastoral environments. I would love to illustrate classics such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Jamaica Inn, The Secret Garden or Tom's Midnight Garden. To be able to illustrate for Linda Newbery and Siobhan Dowd in books that deal with nature and landscape has been a gift in recent years and has reinvigorated my passion for the illustrated novel.
www.pamsmy.blogspot.co.uk
Pam Smy studied Illustration at Cambridge School of Art, part of Anglia Ruskin University, where she now lectures part-time. Pam has illustrated books by Conan Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles), Julia Donaldson (Follow the Swallow) and Kathy Henderson (Hush, Baby, Hush!), among others. She lives in Cambridge.
Featured Illustrator: Pam Smy
4 MINUTEREAD
This month's Featured Illustrator is Pam Smy. Senior Lecturer of the Illustration Course for the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University, Pam is an amazingly evocative illustrator in her own right, and as a writer is about to release her first novel. Tomorrow (11th March) she's running the SCBWI Masterclass workshop Building Words for Your Character at The House of Illustration near King's Cross in London.
For more of her work, check her Featured Illustrator Gallery.
As a child we moved around a lot, and from the age of 10 onwards I lived mostly in rural areas, so much of my time was spent outside. I loved building dens in the garden or nature-spotting with my Usborne Spotter's Guide in hand. My early years were in a mostly book-less house. I had an adored bind-up of Frances Hodgson Burnett novels - The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Little Princess. I read them over and over. I believed in being nice, that everything would turn out okay and that robins were good. In my teen years this evolved into wandering aimlessly down country lanes trying to look hopeful and melancholy at the same time, or exploring overgrown byways on my bicycle.
I was out of place at the local youth club. I joined the local watercolour evening class (I was the only non-retired member) instead of hanging out with the cool kids at the village bus stop.
My step-dad was a greetings card sales rep. He brought home portfolios of Christmas or Mother’s Day cards, pastoral scenes at sunrise and depictions of Victorian streets in fog. In those black glossy books cards by Babette Cole, Nick Butterworth and Anthony Browne nudged up alongside traditional painting. It was an introduction to a rich and varied diet of imagery neatly organised in shiny cellophane-protected presentation pages. It was a gallery in my home, and the show evolved season by season.
I dropped out of my A levels, and went to study a BTEC at Suffolk College in Ipswich instead. My realisation of what drawing was, and how much I loved it began there. And, at the end of the 80's, if you loved drawing you became an illustrator, not a fine artist. So I applied to the BA Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. It was my only choice. I got in.
Observational drawing became my obsession and I spent most of my three years drawing in Working Men's clubs, in pubs, at ballroom dance classes and in WI meetings. I loved it. But I graduated with a portfolio that was so based in the fact of what I had seen/could see that I had no skill in developing an imaginative voice. To explore the various ways that observation can feed into imaginative work has been my quest over the last twenty years.
Since graduating I had published work in educational texts, folk and fairy tale compendiums, and the odd chapter book, but was unsatisfied with the look and feel of my work. I felt I could do better. The MA in Children's Book Illustration was established back at Cambridge School of Art in 2001. I applied. I got in. And it changed my life.
Meeting a group of people that were similarly obsessed made my quest feel like home. Children's books being your 'specialist subject' was okay - more than okay - it was cool. I had found the equivalent to the village bus stop in a purpose built Victorian red brick art school in Cambridge. I could talk about colour, pen nibs, brands of ink, long dead illustrators and new emerging illustration talent with a bunch of hard-working enthusiasts. After working alone in my bedsit having feedback on my work and my ideas challenged was a welcome breath of fresh air.
My work has continued to evolve since I completed the course in 2004, and I have been lucky to have had steady commissions alongside teaching on the MA since I graduated. But for me, the breakthrough in discovering my 'niche' was when I was contacted in 2008 by designer, Ness Wood, who had seen my graduation show four years previously.
Ness had recalled projects I have developed where my love of nature was a key part, and put me forward to illustrate Lob by Linda Newbery. What a dream job! This story about a child who discovers friendship and understanding through being outdoors swept me right back to The Secret Garden, and to those teenage meanderings in the countryside. With one commission separate jigsaw pieces of my life began to drop in place and fit together in a way that made the future clearer.
I was clear that I loved working in response to chapter book texts or novels. I wanted to work on books that involved close relationships between characters and their environment. If that environment was a natural environment, all the better.
I have been working with Ness on projects for David Fickling Books over the last eight years, and feel very at home with their nurturing, collaborative approach to making books. I have worked on books by Linda Newbery, Siobhan Dowd, Penelope Lively and now, my own novel, due later this year.
Each of these books, including the forthcoming Thornhill, are set in places that are crucial to the story - gardens, haunted cottages, alpine landscapes, pagan islands and abandoned houses. I love using my sketchbooks to construct what these spaces and places look and feel like, and working out how the characters relate to those spaces.
Sketchbooks are crucial to how I work. I use them as ‘safe places’ to draw out ideas and roughs repeatedly, often then scanning my favourite to use as final artwork. I rarely work in colour, preferring to work with a dip pen and ink, and layers of tone with ink washes, emulsion paint or, and in the case of the banner art above, soft pencil. I collect antique dip pen nibs whenever I find them, and am always surprised and excited by the differences between one type of nib and another.
I split my time between teaching and illustrating. For me talking about and working with illustration is a way of life rather than a job - and I feel blessed that it has worked out this way.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For more of Pam's work, see her Featured Illustrator Gallery.
You can follow Pam Smy on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @PamSmyIllustrator
Pam is represented by the Elizabeth Roy Literary Agency
Pam Smy
Pam Smy
For media enquiries please contact the Press Team
Associate Lecturer, Illustration
Faculty:Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences
Department:Cambridge School of Art
Location: Cambridge
Areas of Expertise: Illustration, drawing and book art
Courses taught: Children's Book Illustration, Illustration, Illustration and Animation
Pam combines her lecturing with ongoing illustration for children, specializing in illustration for chapter books and novels for older children. Her work has been published by a range of UK publishers, including The Folio Society, Walker Books, Random House Children’s Books and David Fickling Books.
pam.smy@anglia.ac.uk
Background
Pam studied BA (Hons) Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University, going on to study the MA Children's Book Illustration in 2001. As a student, Pam was awarded 3rd place in the Macmillan Prize, a project that led to her first picture book contract with Egmont Books in 2003. Pam has worked for various UK publishers including Macmillan Educational, Hutchinson, Frances Lincoln, Walker Books, A&C Black and Egmont. She has illustrated for authors such as Julia Donaldson, John Agard and Arthur Conan Doyle, Siobhan Dowd, Penelope Lively and Linda Newbery. Pam's books are published in various countries around the world including Britain, Germany, USA, Italy, Korea, Israel and Australia.
Research interests
Narrative drawing
The history and contemporary use of black and white artwork
Qualifications
BA (Hons) Illustration
MA Children's Book Illustration
Selected recent publications
As Illustrator:
Newbery, L. Brockenspectre, (Penguin Random House, 2015)
Lively, P. The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, (The Folio Society, 2014)
Dowd, S. The Ransom of Dond, (David Fickling Books, 2013)
Newbery, L. Lob, (David Fickling Books, 2010)
Donaldson, J. Follow the Swallow, (Egmont Books, 2006)
Conan Doyle, A. The Hound of the Baskervilles, (Walker Books, 2006)
Cattell, B and Agard, J. Shine On, Butter-Finger (Frances Lincoln Ltd. 2007)
Cattell, B and Agard, J. Butter-Finger (Frances Lincoln Ltd. 2006)
My blogs
Pam Smy
Inky Crows
Picture Books in Winter
About me
Gender FEMALE
Industry Arts
Occupation Illustrator
Location Cambridge, United Kingdom
Smy, Pam: THORNHILL
Kirkus Reviews. (June 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Smy, Pam THORNHILL Roaring Brook (Children's Fiction) $19.99 8, 29 ISBN: 978-1-62672-654-3
Decades after the tragedy at and closure of gothic Thornhill Institute, a new girl in town is drawn into its story.The past storyline is told through white, orphaned Mary's diary entries (dated in the early 1980s); white preteen Ella's modern, voiceless story unfolds, Wonderstruck-like, in intercut, illustrated, wordless sequences (frames of which occasionally have text, such as newspaper clippings). Selectively mute Mary is a puppet-making, literature-loving outcast at Thornhill, her situation complicated by the return of her chief tormenter and the ringleader of the other girls, back from a failed foster placement. These are Thornhill's last days, the girls being sent to new placements so the property can be developed. Stoic Mary thinks she just wants to be left alone, until a taste of irresistible friendship turns to cruelty. In the present, lonely Ella is intrigued by Thornhill, especially the girl she sometimes sees beyond the locked walls. She sneaks onto the grounds, finds puppets, and repairs them before returning them, striking up an odd, at-a-distance friendship with the mysterious girl--who, she realizes, is likely the dead girl from the orphanage's past. The puppets and doll figures take a familiar creepy motif and make it a source of joy and comfort. The striking monochromatic art is atmospheric and emotional in an understated way that gives it more power rather than less. It's capped by an ambiguous climax and chilling denouement. Beautiful, moody, sad, and spooky--all at once. (Horror/graphic hybrid. 10-adult)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Smy, Pam: THORNHILL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 June 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495427578/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=af1a2490. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495427578
Thornhill
Katie Bircher
The Horn Book Magazine. 93.5 (September-October 2017): p107+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The Horn Book, Inc.. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
Full Text:
Thornhill
by Pam Smy; illus. by the author
Middle School Roaring Brook 540 pp. g
8/17 978-1-62672-654-3 $19.99
Spare diary entries relate twelve-year-old orphan Mary's heart-wrenching experience at the soon-to-be-shuttered Thornhill Institute in 1982. Electively mute, sensitive, and creative, Mary makes an obvious target for a sadistic bully (whom Mary refers to only, and ominously, as she); the torment causes her to become ever more withdrawn. Alternating Selznick-style (The Invention of Hugo Cabret, rev. 3/07) with Mary's narrative is another one told entirely in atmospheric black-and-white illustrations: in 2017, Ella moves with her single, never-present father into a house overlooking the now-abandoned Thornhill. Ella's investigation into Thornhill's past, her discovery of Mary's diary, and her overtures of friendship to the mysterious girl she glimpses at Thornhill, made through a mutual interest in the art of puppetry, gradually reveal Mary's fate. The separate stories of these two desperately lonely girls intertwine in a conclusion that's both devastating and fitting. The suspenseful ghost story and the highly visual format make for an undeniable page-turner, but text and illustrations alike reward careful attention with telling details. Gothic fiction serves as inspiration for both the book's style and the imaginations of its protagonists (check out the books and posters in Ella's bedroom), and Smy does the genre proud. KATIE BIRCHER
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Bircher, Katie. "Thornhill." The Horn Book Magazine, Sept.-Oct. 2017, p. 107+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A503641840/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=747d8925. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A503641840
Thornhill
Publishers Weekly. 264.49-50 (Dec. 4, 2017): pS116.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Thornhill
Pam Smy. Roaring Brook, $19.99 ISBN 978-1-62672-654-3
Near the start of British illustrator Smy's harrowing debut novel, Ella Clarke and her father move to a house that overlooks a dilapidated former orphanage, the Thornhill Institute. Ella's father is never home, so when the lonely teen spies a girl wandering Thornhill's grounds, she decides to crawl through the gate and introduce herself. Thirty-five years earlier, in 1982, 13-year-old Thornhill resident Mary Baines is being tormented day and night by a fellow orphan. When the facility begins "rehoming" children and laying off staff as part of a planned closure, her bully's persecution intensifies, and an increasingly miserable Mary contemplates revenge. Her actions will have ramifications for decades to come. The girls' stories intertwine as they unfold in tandem; heartbreaking entries from Mary's diary alternate with eerie b&w illustrated sequences, which silently follow Ella's exploration of Thornhill and her interactions with Mary's ghost (newspaper clippings and other bits of text provide context for these otherwise wordless sections). Smy uses this hybrid format to weave a chilling tale that highlights the importance of kindness and child advocacy while emphasizing the lasting damage wrought by abuse and neglect. Ages 10-14.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Thornhill." Publishers Weekly, 4 Dec. 2017, p. S116. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A518029937/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=891390e7. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A518029937
Thornhill
Publishers Weekly. 264.23 (June 5, 2017): p54.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Thornhill
Pam Smy. Roaring Brook, $19.99 (544p)
ISBN 978-1-62672-654-3
Near the start of British illustrator Smy's harrowing debut novel, Ella Clarke and her father move to a house that overlooks a dilapidated former orphanage, the Thornhill Institute. Ella's father is never home, so when the lonely teen spies a girl wandering Thornhill's grounds, she decides to crawl through the gate and introduce herself. Thirty-five years earlier, in 1982, 13-year-old Thornhill resident Mary Baines is being tormented day and night by a fellow orphan. When the facility begins "rehoming" children and laying off staff as part of a planned closure, her bully's persecution intensifies, and an increasingly miserable Mary contemplates revenge. Her actions will have ramifications for decades to come. The girls' stories intertwine as they unfold in tandem; heartbreaking entries from Mary's diary alternate with eerie b&w illustrated sequences, which silently follow Ella's exploration of Thornhill and her interactions with Mary's ghost (newspaper clippings and other bits of text provide context for these otherwise wordless sections). Smy uses this hybrid format to weave a chilling tale that highlights the importance of kindness and child advocacy while emphasizing the lasting damage wrought by abuse and neglect. Ages 10-14. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Thornhill." Publishers Weekly, 5 June 2017, p. 54. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495538400/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a1320c84. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495538400
Smy, Pam. Thornhill
Stacey Hayman
Voice of Youth Advocates. 40.2 (June 2017): p83+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
5Q * 4P * M * J * S * R (a)
Smy, Pam. Thornhill. Roaring Brook/ Macmillan, 2017. 544p. $19.99. 978-1 62672-654-3.
This novel tells two intertwined stories: one set in 1982 and told through Mary's journal entries; and the other set in the present, describing Ella's experiences through illustrations. Mary lives at Thornhill Institute, a place where young girls are cared for while waiting to find foster homes. Her selective mutism has left her vulnerable to bullying and isolation. Crafting a family of dolls and puppets gives Mary her happiest moments. Having just moved in next door to the now-abandoned Thornhill, Ella is often alone as her mom is only a picture on the wall and her father is rarely around. As Ella finds and repairs Mary's damaged dolls, a connection begins to build between the two girls. Will either of them find what they so desperately need--some-one to care?
The brief and haunting journal entries provide a solid storyline to follow while the stunning illustrations are full of clues that will encourage every reader to fill in details using their own imagination and to understand the story from a unique perspective. All levels of readers--from reluctant readers to adults--will find themselves flying through these pages to find out what happens next, and will happily return to the beginning for another look. Teens looking for something less conventional with a slightly dark edge will be intrigued, while fans of Brian Selznick and Ransom Riggs should be placed directly at the top of the long list for this one.--Stacey Hayman.
QUALITY
5Q Hard to imagine it being better written.
4Q Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses.
3Q Readable, without serious defects.
2Q Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q.
1Q Hard to understand how it got published, except in relation to its P rating (and not even then sometimes).
POPULARITY
5P Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday.
4P Broad general or genre YA appeal.
3P Will appeal with pushing.
2P For the YA reader with a special interest in the subject.
1P No YA will read unless forced to for assignments.
GRADE LEVEL INTEREST
M Middle School (defined as grades 6-8).
J Junior High (defined as grades 7-9).
S Senior High (defined as grades 10-12).
A/YA Adult-marketed book recommended for YAs.
NA New Adult (defined as college-age).
R Reluctant readers (defined as particularly suited for reluctant readers).
(a) Highlighted Reviews Graphic Novel Format
(G) Graphic Novel Format
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hayman, Stacey. "Smy, Pam. Thornhill." Voice of Youth Advocates, June 2017, p. 83+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497860408/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=918b76ce. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497860408
Smy, Pam. Thornhill
Stephanie Wilkes
School Library Journal. 63.7 (July 2017): p83.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
SMY, Pam. Thornhill. illus. by Pam Smy. 544p. Roaring Brook. Aug. 2017. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781626726543.
Gr 5-9--This illustrated debut novel brings the dead back to life. Mary's story, told through diary entries, takes place in 1982 over a seven-month period at the Thornhill Institute for Children, an orphanage on the cusp of closing its doors forever. Mary has selective mutism and has turned to the art of doll-making. Her odd hobby and quiet persona make her a target for bullying. After many of the other orphan girls have been "re-homed," Mary is left alone with her main tormentor and decides she has had enough and will get revenge, no matter what the cost. Flash forward 35 years to Ella, who has moved to a home near the now abandoned Thornhill Institute and whose experiences are depicted through eerie, detailed drawings. After seeing a girl in the neglected lot and hoping to make a friend, Ella sneaks in and discovers that there is much more there than meets the eye. In Mary's old room, Ella reads the poor orphan girl's diary. Ella writes a letter to Mary asking if they can become friends. The striking juxtaposition of Mary's prose and the illustrations portraying Ella's life will draw readers into this intriguing ghost story with an ending that chills to the bone. VERDICT The combination of diary entries and artwork makes this an excellent selection for middle schoolers and reluctant readers.--Stephanie Wilkes, Good Hope Middle School, West Monroe, LA
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Wilkes, Stephanie. "Smy, Pam. Thornhill." School Library Journal, July 2017, p. 83. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A497611142/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c12674b4. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A497611142