By choosing to have an entry inscribed in the book, the individual is not only having a memorial that is permanent, but is remembering their loved one in a personal and unique way. A grandes rasgos diré que se trata de una historia de fantasmas, de lugares encantados que guardan celosamente sus secretos tras los muros decrépitos por el paso del tiempo y el abandono. Porque esta historia esconde una trama terrorífica que te pilla desprevenido. Todos alguna vez nos hemos sentido fuera de lugar, encerrados en un mundo en el que no encajamos, refugiados en nuestro lugar seguro. Todos construimos una barra de espinas a nuestro alrededor para alejarnos de un daño que acecha con una sonrisa. La protagonista de esta historia es uno de nosotros y eso la convierte en una fuente explosiva de emociones que corre el riesgo de destruir nuestras propias minas de defensa. Pam Smy nos regala una emotiva historia con el acompañamiento mediante imágenes perfecto y acorde con el tono melancólico y triste que desprenden sus páginas.

Es ahí cuando apagas el televisor y te acomodas en tu sillón de lectura. Es ahí cuando frunces el ceño y te planteas que la trama que estás leyendo esta empezando a rumiarte por dentro. Es ahí cuando empieza a afectarte las bromas, críticas, desprecios y desgracias que está padeciendo una protagonista con la que te sientes identificado en todo momento. Y es ahí cuando, ya con tus defensas bajadas, el silencio que te rodea empieza a jugarte malas pasadas. Pam Smy is very good at world building. As a Senior Lecturer in Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University, exploring that balance between character and place is something I expect she understands incredibly well. So when I state that Thornhill is a masterclass in narrative drawing, I feel I’m standing on solid ground. Mary and Ella, two young girls who live a stone’s throw away from each other yet thirty-five years apart, find themselves bound by unspoken parallels and an inescapable similitude of the heart. Part diary, part wordless illustration, this is an intelligent dual-narrative, gothic graphic novel whose characters and landscape burn tangibly with life. Esta novela combina de manera armoniosa las ilustraciones (presente) y el diario de Mary (pasado), y realmente es un recurso que me ha gustado mucho y me ha resultado muy original. Cada vez veo de forma más natural el hecho de mezclar ilustraciones en la lectura y eso poco a poco me va entusiasmando.I bought Thornhill after I saw it on one of my favourite booktube channels :) and the person who read it raved about it so I thought I would give it a go...and I was richly rewarded with an intriguing, atmospheric and very haunting read. It's likely that Ella's character/storyline wasn't intended for a similar weightage, but that is what I wanted from the book anyway and that is what hindered my enjoyment to some degree. In 1982 a girl called Mary is living in Thornhill, a troubled and largely un-governed orphanage; it is her diary we are reading, and uncomfortable reading it is. It tells us a story of intense psychological bullying, the sort inflicted by irrepairably damaged children that goes unnoticed by adults. Anyone who has had experience of bullying at school knows full-well that children can be cruel, adults can be both stupid and disbelieving, and that damaged people actively and furtively seek out possibilities to damage other people. Through her diary we watch the tragic story of Mary progress. She seeks peace by creating beautiful creatures; with infinite care and attention she makes little dolls, finely-crafted little figures, often characters from her favourite books. To the rest of the world she utters not a word, Mary is a selective mute. Told in both a wordless graphic novel & prose, THORNHILL is a story I couldn't wait to be done with. Combining the past (1982) with the present, THORNHILL revolves around Mary, a quiet girl living at the orphanage waiting to be adopted. Unfortunately, having selective mutism along with her hobby of puppet-making, makes her misunderstood, leading her to be one of the last girls at the home. Besides Mary, there's "her"- a nasty bully who brings so much mental distress that Mary stays in her room for days at a time. Of course none of the adults in her life (save for one exception) make any attempt to help her out & Mary is left with the decision to speak up or take matters into her own hands. 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 thegraveyard, past Frances Cornford’s poem, the hidden pillbox and around the field beyond all ofwhich inspired the setting and story for The Hideaway.

I am a school book and resource supplier and I have over 20 years experience in assisting primary and secondary schools. I have worked with many schools across the UK assisting them with setting up a new Library, class set text, classroom books, text books etc and I would like to offer you my services. so, yeah - the story is rough, the artwork is uneven, but it's definitely not a waste of time. i just thought this was going to be one of those I LOVE YOU books, and it didn't work out that way. This personal touch is achieved by the individual being able to choose exactly how they want their entry to look. Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing - Tiene un final bastante sorprendente y de esos que erizan los vellos de todo el cuerpo mientras te das cuenta de todo lo que ha sucedido casi sin darte cuenta. Pienso que es un libro que me hubiera gustado más en mi adolescencia básicamente por el vocabulario y estilo narrativo (está encarado a un público joven) pero no me han impedido disfrutarlo.The date for the entry and the preferred colour ink must be stated – anything else relating to the inscription such as an emblem or other artwork, is optional. Es una gran historia con un mensaje muy importante tras sus líneas, y con un final que me ha parecido muy oscuro y cíclico porque podría repetirse por mucho tiempo... 🤐 y donde se funden ambas líneas temporales. Esa ha sido la mejor parte junto con las imágenes que acompañan la historia. Mary is a young girl in the 1980s who resides in a girls’ home called Thornhill. Her story is very dark; she is lonely with only the puppets she crafts for company. No family seems interested in adopting her. She is also being tormented and bullied, by a small group but there is one girl who is particularly cruel to her. Mary refers to her as she, with disdain. Mary is an orphan at the Thornhill Institute for Children at the very moment that it's closing down for good. But when a bully goes too far, Mary's revenge will have a lasting effect on the bully, on Mary, and on Thornhill itself. I'm also all for how the book ends — it's the only way to wind it up without soft-pedaling and ruining all that had been established thus far — which was all that mattered to me for quite some time thereupon. I even contemplated rating this with five solid stars, but all things considered, this actually is a 4-star read personally.

En esencia, es una lectura muy recomendable, con una bonita y cuidada edición que se disfruta pero que puede que a los que tengamos muchas lecturas en las espaldas se nos quede un poco "coja" en cuanto a trama. Igualmente lo guardaré como oro en paño para que en unos años nuestras hijas puedan disfrutar de este tétrico cuento. I like the noise of being surrounded by a group. It’s as though there are little stories whizzing around—dreams of pop groups and boyfriends, gossip about eyeliner and shoes and teachers. I don’t have to join in, but still I feel part of their gang—on the edges looking in, watching, listening, but happy to be included.” Foster homes are a place for abandoned children. Jacqueline Wilson famously referred to them as The Dumping Grounds in the Tracy Beaker series. And for the children put into Thornhill this is very much the case. The house is probably normal to the outward eye, but to their perceptions it reflects the mood of the place. Their carers are not as attentive as they should be; they miss the signs of bullying and their eventual responses to it help to facilitate such behaviour further. All in all, they do everything that foster homes shouldn't do. Woe to Mary and Ella, victim and perpetrator of a situation that could have been so easily resolved had it been recognised by responsible eyes. For an entry in the October/November/December volume the application must be received by 5 th AugustParallel 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. The awful thing though is that the story is just so TRAGIC. At the end, when most of the staff have left Thornhill and the girls have been re-homed, the only two who are left are Mary and the bully (I actually cannot remember her name which is terrible of me) where they come to blows again. I really wanted Mary to get her revenge because no-one should have to suffer like that especially when they are in an orphanage without the support and protection of their so-called carers but the bully escapes and leaves. Mary, who has always led an insular life and is faced with the terrifying prospect of being re-homed with the bully, and who has always considered Thornhill to be her home, commits suicide in (what I can only assume is) a horrific, brutal and violent way. Thornhill is told through journal entries and illustrations. As I said before this book wasn't scary to me as an adult but it was incredibly sad. Mary the orphan is being bullied on a daily basis and her life is a living hell but none of the adults that are suppose to be looking after her seem to care. Only one adult in her life even makes an attempt to help and even that was half assed. Mary only wanted to be friends with the other kids in the orphanage and to make her creepy little puppets but instead she was made fun of, shunned and treated like garbage. The adults could and should have stepped in but instead they chose to actively ignore it.