Goldie at the Orphanage

This involving story, first published in Swedish in 1986, tells of Goldie’s bleak early childhood in an orphanage. Not even an approximate time is given for the events, but there are telling clues which place them somewhere around the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Young readers can be helped to speculate about this and will notice the distinctive long sleeved dresses and white smocks the little girls are obliged to wear and the harsh regime at the orphanage. Comments like ‘Lotta and Goldie were now seven years old, and in those days old enough to start work’ and the shocking revelation that orphaned boys and girls could be bought at auctions will draw strong responses from some children. Goldie finds the insistence on uniformity in dress and behaviour hard but there are some instances of kindness; a young nursemaid comforts her with a kiss when she has endured having her rather wild golden hair brushed and straightened. The pleasures of friendship also shine through the pages.

The delicate and detailed watercolours work with the text to evoke a strong sense of a particular environment and show resourceful children struggling with difficult lives. This compelling tale has no conventional happy ending: the two friends are parted and face an uncertain future after being auctioned. Anticipating that young readers will now be hooked, and some certainly will be, the book ends with a footnote promising that the story is ‘to be continued in Goldie at the Farm’.