The themes involving family and adventure unify Thimble Summer. These themes find their focus in Garnet Linden, a girl "between nine and ten" who craves independence and the respect of her family. A tomboy, Garnet goes barefoot most of the time, dislikes wearing dresses, and enjoys physical activities such as swimming and helping out with the farm work. Quick to anger and nearly as quick to forgive, she is a resilient, good-hearted character.

Garnet looks to her family for warmth and support, but she is an independent girl who wants adventures of her own and who sometimes acts without thinking. When her brother's teasing leads her to run off impetuously to New Connlston, she has a vague idea that maybe her family will be "sorry later on."

This childish notion of punishing those who love her is forgotten in the excitement of hitchhiking and...