LoveReading4Kids Says
LoveReading4Kids Says
UKLA Longlist Book Awards - 2019 | Shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018
Two lonely girls are at the heart of Pam Smy’s strikingly told gothic story. Mary lives at Thornhill, an old mansion turned children’s home and is cruelly tormented by one of the other girls. Mary is selectively mute and we read her story through her diary entries as well as in the wordless, full page monochrome illustrations.
Ella’s story is told entirely through the illustrations. She has just moved in nearby and we work out that her mother is dead. When Ella sees Mary in the grounds of Thornhill a friendship develops though by then Ella and reader both know that Mary is a ghost. Heartbreakingly sad and thoroughly chilling at the same time, this is an unforgettable read; powerful, atmospheric, skilfully paced, Pam Smy’s illustrations pull the reader into the creepy Thornhill world.
Reviewed by Andrea ReeceAndrea Reece has spent almost her entire working life in children’s books, first as publisher, latterly as consultant, project manager and critic.
More reviews by Andrea Reece About Thornhill
As she unpacks in her new bedroom, Ella is irresistibly drawn to the big old house that she can see out of her window. Surrounded by overgrown gardens, barbed wire fences and 'keep out' signs, it looks derelict. But that night, a light goes on in one of the windows. And the next day she sees a girl in the grounds. Ella is hooked. The house has a story to tell. She is sure of it. Enter Thornhill, Institute for Children, and discover the dark secrets that lie within.
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Thornhill Synopsis
As she unpacks in her new bedroom, Ella is irresistibly drawn to the big old house that she can see out of her window. Surrounded by overgrown gardens, barbed wire fences and 'keep out' signs, it looks derelict. But that night, a light goes on in one of the windows. And the next day she sees a girl in the grounds. Ella is hooked. The house has a story to tell. She is sure of it. Enter Thornhill, Institute for Children, and discover the dark secrets that lie within.
But once inside, will you ever leave?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781910200612 |
| Publication date: |
24th August 2017 |
| Author: |
Pam Smy |
| Publisher: |
David Fickling Books |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
533 pages |
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Press Reviews
Pam Smy Press Reviews
'Pam Smy has created a wonderful piece of work in 'Thornhill'. The drawings are full of atmosphere, the words are full of tension and emotion all the more powerful for being so sparingly revealed. This is in one sense a classic English lonely-child-and-garden story, in the tradition of Frances Hodgson Burnett and Philippa Pearce'
in another it's a ghost story in another it pays tribute to the dark-sinister-house genre most famously seen in Hitchcock's Psycho. But it's also a story of friendship and courage and of the power of black-and-white images. I think it's terrific.' - Philip Pullman
Author
About Pam Smy
Pam Smy is a Senior Lecturer Practitioner in Illustration on the MA Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art. She combines her teaching career with writing and illustrating. She studied on the MA herself, graduating with the first cohort in 2004. Since then she has worked with a range of UK publishers including The Folio Society, Penguin Random House and David Fickling Books. 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.
Her first novel, Thornhill was a critical and commercial success, shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the UKLA Book Awards, and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018 and winning the 2018 British Book Design & Production Award for Graphic Novels. She has delivered many talks and illustration workshops, including school events and major literary festivals.
Pam lives in Cambridge with her husband, author-illustrator Dave Shelton, and her child, Mila. Most early mornings you’ll see her walking her dog, Barney, along All Souls’ Lane into the graveyard, past Frances Cornford’s poem, the hidden pillbox and around the field beyond all of which inspired the setting and story for The Hideaway.
Photo credit Zulfiya Wilde
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