Mystery, Childhood, and Meaning in Ursula Dubosarsky's The Golden Day

Abstract

<p><i>The Golden Day</i> (2011) is an Australian mystery novel for young readers, set in the years between 1967 and 1975. In it, Miss Renshaw, a teacher from a private girls' school, vanishes from a cave on the Sydney foreshore, when she and her pupils go there with Morgan, a gardener who says he is a poet and a conscientious objector, to see some Aboriginal rock paintings he has told her about. The loss of their teacher has a profound effect on these girls, who are thrust from childhood innocence to adult awareness. Some believe Miss Renshaw will return. Others think she is dead. Both are correct. In the years following her disappearance, the girls grow up and make their way through the education system in their conservative private school. As they grow, they reflect on her disappearance, interweaving their thoughts about this dramatic event with the facts and ideas they learn in the classroom and in life.</p>