Who would have thought that such an unprepossessing book as The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett would prove to be such a delight to read! The action starts in India, just at the point when an unloved and unlikeable child, called Mary, loses both her parents to cholera. She is shipped back to England to stay at the large but gloomy house of her uncle - but he doesn't seem to want her either. Left to her own devices, she explores the vast gardens and is intrigued by a walled garden to which there is no entrance. Determined to get her own way (which is what usually happens) she sets out to find a way in, even though she has been told that it is forbidden - her uncle closed the garden up following the death of his wife. Into Mary's insular world enters a grizzled and grumpy gardener called Ned, a local boy (Dickon) who seems to be able to charm animals, a friendly robin and then, quite unexpectedly, her cousin Colin - who is just as unlikeable and unloved as she is. When they find a way into the secret garden, both it and the unlikely companions start to work a kind of magic on the cousins, who seem to blossom in parallel to the plants and flowers they tend. This is a great book, with a message for everyone - don't brood on dark thoughts, as they will eat away at you and stop you living a full life. Focus on something a little lighter ... and you may just find that suddenly, you are not worrying and festering amongst the darkness anymore and that anything is possible! I so enjoyed this book and I hope that if you haven't read it - you will - definitely worth a few hours of your time.
My STAR rating: FIVE
Length: 288 print pages.
Price I paid: Free on Kindle.
Formats available: print; audio CD; audio download; ebook.
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