The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
published
2000
(first published 1909)
by HarperCollins
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binding
Hardcover, 352 pages
characters
isbn
0688145825
(isbn13: 9780688145828)
description
Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as imper...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 18285)
Read in January, 2008
English 425 Submitter’s name _Cati Howard
Book Bank Book Bank subject: _my favorite book___
Reference information:
Title The Secret Garden
Author Frances Hodgson Burnett
Publisher J.B. Linppincott Company Year 1911
# of pages 256 Genre drama
Reading level 4.5 Interest level 9-12 years old
Potential hot lava:
None to speak of except that there are references to death throughout the story. Children who have issues dealing with mortality should be monitored when reading ...more
Book Bank Book Bank subject: _my favorite book___
Reference information:
Title The Secret Garden
Author Frances Hodgson Burnett
Publisher J.B. Linppincott Company Year 1911
# of pages 256 Genre drama
Reading level 4.5 Interest level 9-12 years old
Potential hot lava:
None to speak of except that there are references to death throughout the story. Children who have issues dealing with mortality should be monitored when reading ...more
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When my youngest daughter saw me reading this, she scoffed, "You haven't read that? I've read it AND seen the movie!" Guess I'm falling behind! When I first considered reading this (on the syllabus of a course I'm auditing) I seriously considered just not reading it and skipping the class when it would be discussed (ah! the beauties of auditing!). But I'm glad I didn't.
There's a lot of stuff going on in this text that I ended up finding fascinating. For one thing, it led me to invest...more
There's a lot of stuff going on in this text that I ended up finding fascinating. For one thing, it led me to invest...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
gardeners; children
I seem to be the only woman I know who didn't read and cherish this book as a child. So I decided to see what all the fuss was about...
It took me a while to get in step with the tone of this book. The beginning was Jane Eyre-lite...Mary is orphaned and sent from India to England to live with her uncle, a stranger to her. The story progresses...and then....Mary's talking to a robin, and he's showing her where buried keys are. At that point, the mood shifted, and I sat back t...more
It took me a while to get in step with the tone of this book. The beginning was Jane Eyre-lite...Mary is orphaned and sent from India to England to live with her uncle, a stranger to her. The story progresses...and then....Mary's talking to a robin, and he's showing her where buried keys are. At that point, the mood shifted, and I sat back t...more
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Read in July, 2006
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Read in May, 2008
I guess I didn't miss much by not reading this book as a child. I don't really understand why it became a classic. It starts out interestingly enough with a very gothic setting. A little British girl named Mary survives a cholera epidemic in India and is sent to Yorkshire to live with her distant relatives. The author gives a vivid description of the beauty of the moors and the mysterious mansion that the girl goes to live in. The only other interesting part is really when Mary discovers the boy...more
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recommends it for:
parents
I know this book seems out of place among the fare I usually read, but hey, all I can say is that I like what I like. There is some intangible quality to this book that really strikes a chord in me. The whole idea of that sickly child being healed with love, attention, and (forgive me an LDS joke) wholesome recreational activities, just somehow speaks Truth to me. I think this book has strong application to today's problems with the rising generation. I really believe that kids these days ar...more
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Read in March, 1987
recommends it for:
Gardeners / Readers with a Taste for Sentimental Girls' Fiction
Read the year I was eleven, shortly after Burnett's A Little Princess, The Secret Garden has been one of my "comfort novels" ever since, usually making an annual reappearance sometime in the dark and dreary winter, when the idea of a garden holds particular charm. The story of two cousins - spoiled orphan Mary Lennox, sent to stay at her uncle's estate in Yorkshire, and her invalid cousin Colin - both of whom find healing and love through the "magic" of the Secr...more
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14 comments
Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
everyone who loves reading mystery and people who love happines
The secret garden is one of my favorite books, it shows what the author is trying to say just by reading the first 3 chapters. after that the story goes on talking about so many wonderful things that you would like to live. As the story goes on you feel like you are living it, the author makes the story seem so real that you can just slip throw the pages and wonder how you finished it so fast.
I think the author did the story because there are so many people that loose their parents and think ...more
I think the author did the story because there are so many people that loose their parents and think ...more
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Read in January, 1983
recommended to Rebecca by:
my Momrecommends it for: Everyone, especially young girls.
This is my favorite book, ever! My Mom made me read it as a kid, and I really didn't want to. I put it off and put it off, and finally decided to just suck it up and read it. I think it took 10 pages for me to get completely hooked.
I think I loved the book so much because it was all about bringing about life and growth through love. All the main characters are sort of "forgotten" in some way or another, and they go on this adventure when Mary finds a key to a secret, walled gar...more
I think I loved the book so much because it was all about bringing about life and growth through love. All the main characters are sort of "forgotten" in some way or another, and they go on this adventure when Mary finds a key to a secret, walled gar...more
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Read in November, 2007
This was one of my favorite books as a child, and I still love it. I love that Mary & Colin blossom as the garden blossoms, and that when they focus their energies on helping something else to grow, they begin to grow too. It's really a beautiful story.
Reading it again as an adult, it was a little hard to get past some of the eurocentric notions (the pure, healthy English air essentially "cures" Mary of her Indian-ness) and there's a bit of law-of-attraction rhetoric ala "...more
Reading it again as an adult, it was a little hard to get past some of the eurocentric notions (the pure, healthy English air essentially "cures" Mary of her Indian-ness) and there's a bit of law-of-attraction rhetoric ala "...more
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5 comments
Read in January, 1993
Secret Garden is one of my absolute favorite books ever. I don't even know how to describe my love of this book. Maybe because I am a bit contrary (Mary, Mary, quite contrary).
I love imaginating all of the scenes in the story: the vast moors, the lonely house, the lifeless gardens. I don't think I could relate to Mary because I didn't have a lonely childhood: I had friends and sisters and a loving family, but I did very much identify with her. Maybe I loved imagining being in that big house...more
I love imaginating all of the scenes in the story: the vast moors, the lonely house, the lifeless gardens. I don't think I could relate to Mary because I didn't have a lonely childhood: I had friends and sisters and a loving family, but I did very much identify with her. Maybe I loved imagining being in that big house...more
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My favorite children's book... Probably... I have many favorites, loved for many different reasons.
This was one of the first books I can remember my mother reading to me and I have read it many, many times since. I'm not sure if my love of gardens and gardening comes from the book or my love of the former ensures the appeal of the latter.
The idea of a place lost and unkempt being found, kept all to one's self, explored and nurtured until it is beautiful again has such resonance for me. P...more
This was one of the first books I can remember my mother reading to me and I have read it many, many times since. I'm not sure if my love of gardens and gardening comes from the book or my love of the former ensures the appeal of the latter.
The idea of a place lost and unkempt being found, kept all to one's self, explored and nurtured until it is beautiful again has such resonance for me. P...more
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Read in September, 2008
Now on to the book itself. I liked it. It was an enjoyable read of some rather unenjoyable characters. Characters like Mary and Colin who are miserable and unhappy and isolated and friendless. Characters that come-of-age and become who they're meant to be. Reading about cranky characters who learn to become decent human beings can be enjoyable now and then. And both Mary and Colin are rather human characters. Dickon their strange animal-loving sidekick always seemed a bit too-good-to-be-true for...more
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Read in January, 2007
Mary Mary Quite Contrary......, so this is where the nursery rhyme came from! Thus starts this well known and beloved tale as young Mary Lennox, raised in India by indifferent parents, is a most spoiled and disagreeable child. After she is orphaned she is sent to live with her recluse uncle Archibald Craven in a large mysterious mansion set amidst the dark moors of England. This story is too well known and beloved by all to rehash the plot all over again. Suffice it to say that this was a lovel...more
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Read in January, 1985
Silly me, I looked through all the editions to find the one I grew up with, but had no luck. But this is what I wrote about it a few months ago:
In the third grade, I would have been hopelessly overwhelmed by my reading assignments had my father not offered to help by reading aloud every other chapter to me and having me read him the rest. We did this in the bedroom, as my mother openly complained how he made a travesty of the English language, with his Russian accent and his putting stress...more
In the third grade, I would have been hopelessly overwhelmed by my reading assignments had my father not offered to help by reading aloud every other chapter to me and having me read him the rest. We did this in the bedroom, as my mother openly complained how he made a travesty of the English language, with his Russian accent and his putting stress...more
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Read in September, 2007
I can't remember how many times I've read this book. I've loved it for years. Book, movie, musical - all of 'em. Although, if I remember correctly, I saw the musical first.
Like most books that you read multiple times, I always notice something different or new in each reading. In this one, it was the sense of joy that I had when Colin first discovered Spring. And how he spoke of the Magic that pushes seeds up through the dirt, I felt that elation and understanding, and I'm not sure I've had ...more
Like most books that you read multiple times, I always notice something different or new in each reading. In this one, it was the sense of joy that I had when Colin first discovered Spring. And how he spoke of the Magic that pushes seeds up through the dirt, I felt that elation and understanding, and I'm not sure I've had ...more
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Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as imperious as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, closed up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors of England, until a locked-up garden captures their imaginations and puts the blush of a wild rose in their cheeks; "It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covere...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Kathryn by:
My teacherrecommends it for: Anyone from age 9 to 16
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Read in January, 1994
recommends it for:
children (but if adults would want to read it too, I don't think there would be any problem)
My second classic (if I remember correctly, my first was "The Odyssey", but sadly, I can't remember the ISBN of THE book 'coz I read it when I was in Grade 3 - or was it 4? Too bad, though, 'coz I really would want to have a copy of that particular book and go through it again *sighs*). Anyway, back to the Secret Garden, I'll tell you a little "secret": I was REALLY digging for Dickon and Mary. Dickon is more sensible than Colin. More fun, too. I mean, he can tame animals, ri...more
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Read in January, 1985
I am deeply indebted to my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Jacobson, for reading this book out loud to us. Since then, I got my own copy, and it is falling apart. I did my final paper for my senior English class in college on this book.
There is something so appealing about having your own secret place, where you can be by yourself or with your friends and the grown-ups don't know where you are. And I loved how they snuck in food with Dickon and Mrs. Sowerby's help. Good books are made better when th...more
There is something so appealing about having your own secret place, where you can be by yourself or with your friends and the grown-ups don't know where you are. And I loved how they snuck in food with Dickon and Mrs. Sowerby's help. Good books are made better when th...more
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