In Sydney in 1968, a class of eleven girls goes on a field trip to the nearby gardens with their teacher, Miss Renshaw. Every time she takes them there, she reminds them the trips are "secret." On this day, the gardener, Morgan, a friend of Miss Renshaw's, takes them down to the beach to see Aboriginal paintings in a nearby cave. But inside the cave it's eerie and dark and the girls leave in a panic. Miss Renshaw and Morgan don't come out. The girls finally return to the school without their teacher, but don't tell where they've been. One girl finally breaks the silence and it's a relief to them all. Not long after, the school holds a memorial service for Miss Renshaw, although the children have no clear understanding of what happened. Time passes and one of the girls, Cubby, becomes friends with Icara, another classmate, but it's a friendship that leaves her uncertain: Icara can be hot or cold, and Cubby eventually realizes Icara's constructed an elaborate fantasy about her absent mother. Ursula Dubosarsky's remarkable novel plays out through the gauzy curtain of memory but also the haze of uncertainty that is so much a part of childhood. Adult lives and adult decisions radically impact children, and this is shown through the extraordinary incident involving Miss Renshaw and the more ordinary yet painful drama of Icara's life: The silences that surround so many things leave children without the means to make sense or make peace. Dubosarsky uses dark and light like a painter, while her elegant narrative is punctuated by moments of humor that temporarily relieve a tension that is both understandable and inexplicable. The novel's final pages are simply astounding in a story that maintains its hold long after the cover is closed. (Age 14 and older)

When their teacher goes missing during an outing, eleven girls grapple with the aftermath in this haunting, exquisitely told psychological mystery.

The Vietnam War rages overseas, but back at home, in a year that begins with the hanging of one man and ends with the drowning of another, eleven schoolgirls embrace their own chilling history when their teacher abruptly goes missing on a field trip. Who was the mysterious poet they had met in the Garden? What actually happened in the seaside cave that day? And most important — who can they tell about it? In beautifully shimmering prose, Ursula Dubosarsky reveals how a single shared experience can alter the course of young lives forever. Part gripping thriller, part ethereal tale of innocence lost, The Golden Day is a poignant study of fear and friendship, and of what it takes to come of age with courage.