Pam Smy. (2017). Thornhill. Roaring Brook Press.

Pam Smy. 2017. Thornhill. Roaring Brook Press.

Pam Smy, Thornhill. Roaring Brook Press, 2017.

Pam Smy. Thornhill. Roaring Brook Press, 2017.

OverDrive Product Record

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title

Thornhill

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3.5

dateAdded

2017-10-06T15:35:36.86-04:00

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keywords

1. • value: Friendship
2. • value: ghosts
3. • value: kid detective
4. • value: Neighborhood
5. • value: Ghost Stories
6. • value: Bullying
7. • value: Historical Fiction
8. • value: illustrated books
9. • value: bully
10. • value: orphans
11. • value: ghost story
12. • value: lonliness
13. • value: Comic Books For Kids
14. • value: Children Comic Books
15. • value: mystery books
16. • value: graphic novel for kids
17. • value: mysteries for kids
18. • value: mystery for kids
19. • value: orphan books
20. • value: illustrated books for kids
21. • value: kids mysteries
22. • value: spooky stories for kids
23. • value: mysterious books
24. • value: kirkus reviews best books of the year
25. • value: best kids books 2017
26. • value: bullying books
27. • value: childrens books about friendship
28. • value: children mystery books
29. • value: kids graphic novels
30. • value: graphic novels for children
31. • value: kid mystery books
32. • value: childrens graphic novels
33. • value: children graphic novels
34. • value: graphic novel children
35. • value: mystery books kids
36. • value: girl ghosts
37. • value: girl orphan books
38. • value: dark stories for kids

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Smy, Pam
   • bioText: 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.
   • name: Pam Smy
2. • role: Illustrator
   • fileAs: Smy, Pam
   • bioText: 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.
   • name: Pam Smy

publishDate

2017-08-29T00:00:00-04:00

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True

title

Thornhill

fullDescription

Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as a girl unravels the mystery of the abandoned Thornhill Institute next door.
1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute For Children at the very moment that it's shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she's left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself.
2017: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl and solidify the link between them, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill's shadowy past.
Told in alternating, interwoven plotlines—Mary's through intimate diary entries and Ella's in bold, striking art—Pam Smy's Thornhill is a haunting exploration of human connection, filled with suspense.
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2017
A New York City Public Library Notable Best Book for Kids
A 2018 ALSC Notable Children's Book
A VOYA Top of the Shelf Pick

gradeLevels

1. • value: Grade 3

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: The New York Times Book Review
   • content:

     "The book will certainly pull lovers of ghost stories, narrative illustration and creepy dolls into its dark pages, to revel in its scares and ambiguities."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus, starred review
   • content: "Atmospheric and emotional in an understated way... Beautiful, moody, sad, and spooky--all at once."
3. • premium: False
   • source: VOYA, starred review
   • content: "All levels of readers--from reluctant readers to adults--will find themselves flying through these pages"
4. • premium: False
   • source: Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review
   • content: "This British import is a stunner"
5. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly, starred review
   • content: "A chilling tale that highlights the importance of kindness and child advocacy while emphasizing the lasting damage wrought by abuse and neglect."
6. • premium: False
   • source: Horn Book
   • content: "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."
7. • premium: False
   • source: School Library Journal
   • content: "[An] intriguing ghost story with an ending that chills to the bone . . . An excellent selection for middle schoolers and reluctant readers."
8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from June 5, 2017
     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.

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from June 15, 2017
     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)

     COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      July 1, 2017
      

      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

      Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

11. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      January 1, 2018
      Diary entries relate twelve-year-old electively mute orphan Mary's heart-wrenching experience of bullying at Thornhill Institute in 1982. Alternating and gradually intertwining with Mary's narrative is Ella's story in 2017, told entirely in atmospheric black-and-white illustrations. Her investigation into Thornhill's past gradually reveals Mary's fate. The suspenseful ghost story and highly visual format make for an undeniable page-turner; text and illustrations reward careful attention with telling details.

      (Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

12. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      September 1, 2017
      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

      (Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

popularity

506

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   • name: English

subjects

1. • value: Fantasy
2. • value: Juvenile Fiction
3. • value: Mystery
4. • value: Suspense

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08/29/2017

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shortDescription

Parallel stories set in different times, one told in prose and one in pictures, converge as a girl unravels the mystery of the abandoned Thornhill Institute next door.
1982: Mary is a lonely orphan at the Thornhill Institute For Children at the very moment that it's shutting its doors. When her few friends are all adopted or re-homed and she's left to face a volatile bully alone, her revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself.
2017: Ella has just moved to a new town where she knows no one. From her room on the top floor of her new home, she has a perfect view of the dilapidated, abandoned Thornhill Institute across the way, where she glimpses a girl in the window. Determined to befriend the girl and solidify the link between them, Ella resolves to unravel Thornhill's shadowy past.
Told in alternating, interwoven plotlines—Mary's through intimate diary entries and Ella's in bold, striking art—Pam Smy's...

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Thornhill

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awards

1. • source: Association for Library Service to Children
   • value: Notable Children's Books

publisher

Roaring Brook Press

atos

4.6

bisacCodes

1. • code: JUV013050
   • description: Juvenile Fiction / Family / Orphans & Foster Homes
2. • code: JUV028000
   • description: Juvenile Fiction / Mysteries & Detective Stories
3. • code: JUV069000
   • description: Juvenile Fiction / Ghost Stories