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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'From the classic Australian children's author. Originally pubished in 1961, this is the coming-of-age story of a boy and his immigrant family in Depression-era Australia: Bruno Gunther lives on a farm in South Australia, where adventures spring up like wheat shoots. He has to cope with his stern dad, his mother and family--and trickiest of all is the new teacher in town, who is too alert for comfort. Then there are the local arguements, that all seem to flare up around complicated bits of machinery, like water pumps and cars. All they really need is a little help from Bruno to sort everything out . . . . For young readers ages 9-14. This novel and three others by Thiele inspired an Australian TV series, 'Sun on the Stubble': The Valley Between, Uncle Gustav's Ghosts & The Shadow on the Hills.'
(Publication summary)
Adaptations
-
form
y
Sun on the Stubble
The Valley Between
ABC Television
(publisher),
( dir. Robert Marchand
)
Lindfield
Australia
Germany
:
Film Australia
ABC Television
ZDF
,
1996
Z1057268
1996
series - publisher
film/TV
Six-part drama series about a fourteen-year-old German immigrant, Bruno Gunther, growing up in a small wheat-farming community in Australia during the 1930s. Based on Colin Thiele's novels The Valley Between, Sun on the Stubble, Uncle Gustav's Ghosts, and The Shadow on the Hills.
Notes
-
Adapted for the 1995 audio recording 'The Sun on the Stubble' by Sheryn Dee, published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Narrated by Ron Haddrick.
-
Loaded from LuRees, UC identifiers :BRN: 130072 RID1: aabn86237901
-
The first in the semi-autobiographical group of novels about Thiele's boyhood in a South Australian farming community.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Sound recording.
- Braille.
Related Works
-
y
Uncle Gustav's Ghosts
Adelaide
:
Rigby
,
1974
Z274019
1974
single work
children's fiction
humour
children's
'Benny Geister's Uncle Gustav meets the first Unseen Presence on the Bethel Road, near the place where Maria Rollenberg and Marcus Kreutzer mysteriously disappeared on their wedding night half a century before. Maria, complete with wedding gown and veil, appears after a tin-kettling for two newlyweds. From then on the fun is fast and furious, as a succession of ghosts and ghoulies, phantom horses and poltergeists plague the Geister household and the community at large.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (New Holland 2005 edition).
-
y
The Shadow on the Hills
Adelaide
:
Rigby Opal
,
1977
Z222087
1977
single work
children's fiction
children's
'Ebenezer Blitz, an eccentric hermit who lives in the Australian hills with his half-dingo, half-domesticated dog, evokes in young, high-spirited Bodo Schneider strong feelings of loyalty and compassion.'
Source: HarperCollins ed.
Works about this Work
-
Conversations : Colin Thiele and James Moloney
James Moloney
(interviewer),
1996
single work
interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 11 no. 5 1996; (p. 12-15) -
Untitled
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 40 no. 3 1996; (p. 37)
— Review of The Sun on the Stubble 1961 single work children's fiction -
Prolific as Ever
1996
single work
column
biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 June 1996; (p. wkd 8) -
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176). -
Colin Thiele : Universality in the Heart of Man
1981
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 197-226)
-
Untitled
1996
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 40 no. 3 1996; (p. 37)
— Review of The Sun on the Stubble 1961 single work children's fiction -
Recent Novels
1962
single work
review
— Appears in: Overland , Autumn no. 23 1962; (p. 55-57)
— Review of La Bora 1961 single work novel ; The Scarlet Blossom 1961 single work novel ; The Dyehouse 1961 single work novel ; Low Company 1961 single work novel ; The Sun on the Stubble 1961 single work children's fiction ; The Fringe Dwellers 1961 single work novel ; A Stranger and Afraid 1961 single work novel ; If Golde Rust 1961 single work novel -
Fiction Chronicle
1961
single work
review
— Appears in: Meanjin Quarterly , December vol. 20 no. 4 1961; (p. 474-491)
— Review of The Sun on the Stubble 1961 single work children's fiction -
Conversations : Colin Thiele and James Moloney
James Moloney
(interviewer),
1996
single work
interview
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , November vol. 11 no. 5 1996; (p. 12-15) -
Writing the Home : The Literary Careers of Ethel Turner and L. M. Montgomery
1990
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Children's Literature Association Quarterly , vol. 15 no. 4 1990; (p. 175-180) Niall discusses the literary careers of Australian writer Ethel Turner and Canadian writer L. M. Montgomery with attention to how, as contemporaries, their experiences often paralleled one another. She argues that Turner revolutionized Australian children's literature by bringing 'the action indoors and show[ing] that suburban Australia could be at least as interesting as the outback' (175). As Niall points out 'traditionally, Australian writers have concerned themselves with the city or the bush; there is very little representation of small town communities or closely settled farming districts' (178-179). Up until the 1960s there was very little development of novels that celebrate regionalism and Niall cites Colin Thiele's The Sun on the Stubble as 'perhaps the best example of an emerging regional tradition' (179). While Montgomery's recurring motif was 'the orphan's search for a home', Turner's novels often centred on the struggle of an individual or family 'with poverty or a father's tyranny as the source of conflict' (178), and featured independent and resourceful heroines who often had to choose between 'a career as a writer or artist and marriage and motherhood' (176). -
Prolific as Ever
1996
single work
column
biography
— Appears in: The Courier-Mail , 22 June 1996; (p. wkd 8) -
Colin Thiele : Universality in the Heart of Man
1981
single work
criticism
biography
— Appears in: Innocence and Experience : Essays on Contemporary Australian Children's Writers 1981; (p. 197-226) -
Colin Thiele: from Sun to Shadow
1978
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Reading Time: The Official Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , January no. 66 1978; (p. 2-9)
Awards
Last amended 7 May 2020 12:04:34
Settings:
- South Australia,
- Rural,
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