Read this when
The Secret Garden
Mary Lennox was the most unpleasant kid in England. Then she got a garden. 🌱 Sometimes the fix is literally dirt and sunlight.
Who it's for
The Secret Garden shows two lonely, neglected children who are hard to like, and lets them change gradually as they care for a neglected garden.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, serialized from 1910 and published as a book in 1911, follows Mary Lennox, a young girl orphaned by cholera in British India. She is sent to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven, at Misselthwaite Manor in Yorkshire. At first unhappy and difficult, Mary changes as she sets out to find a walled garden her uncle locked after his wife's death there.
Where to find it
Public domain in the US: free on Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks, and free audiobooks on LibriVox. Also widely in print and in every library.
Before you start
Heads up: Parents' deaths and period racism.
Age: Ages 9+
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Joy and Sorrow”
