L – She is pretty important to the plot in the beginning. L – You mean the other supportive “poor” person? Who is closer the the heroine’s age and therefore fills the requirement of “friend”, until the real friend shows up?ĭ – Yes! That one! Give Martha some credit, though, she does introduce the idea of the secret garden which makes pitiful looking Mary go outside for a change. Well, I really should say, helps open her eyes to her own snobbiness. And is the first to put snobby, little Mary in her place. They don’t count.ĭ – Ugh…fine…wait, what about the maid? Martha is very nice. L – She’s the supportive “poor” person character. (but you also don’t get to meet her til the very end of the book…)

She is a lovely lady and every child on Earth would want her for a mother. Why are the adults all grumpy recluses in these stories?ĭ – Hey, hey give Dickson’s mom some credit here. So now she has to go live with her grumpy (probably neglectful) Uncle in England.ĭ – You don’t get to meet that cheery fellow for a while! L – The story introduces us to our main character, Mary, by letting us know that she lived in India and had neglectful parents. L – And maybe a tiny bit about not letting grief overcome you and opening yourself up to new experiences…. The language isn’t very difficult and the story is pretty simple and is obviously meant to teach a lesson.ĭ – Yes, definitely meant to spark some ideas in a child’s mind as to what they should be doing…like go outside!! And don’t be such a turd!! L – It’s a bit obvious that the intended audience for this book is older children. Not very adventurous or wildly exciting, but it may just pull your heart strings. Through their newfound mutual love of nature, they nurture each other, until they are brought back to health and happiness.ĭ – This is a pretty good classic. Together with a local child named Dickon, Mary and Colin transform the garden into a paradise bursting with life and color. Mary also discovers a literal secret garden, hidden behind a locked gate on her uncle’s estate and neglected for the ten years since Colin’s birth and his mother’s death. They are the book’s spiritual secret gardens, needing only the right kind of care to bloom into lovely children. Both love no one because they have never been loved.

There she discovers her sickly cousin Colin, who is equally obnoxious and imperious. Has any story ever dared to begin by calling its heroine “the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen” and, just a few sentences later, “as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived”? Mary Lennox is the “little pig,” sent to Misselthwaite Manor, on the Yorkshire moors, to live with her uncle after her parents die of cholera. Summary: Though Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote more than forty books, none remains so popular as her miraculous and magical masterpiece.

Garden story bookworm