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The Crystal Garden
After moving to a new home, Eliza hopes to make exciting new friends with a cliquish group of girls and is willing to pass a daring test for the honor, but finds a real friendship test in a bookish fellow student
217 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Vicki Grove
21 books18 followersVicki Grove lives in a 100-year-old farmhouse on a few acres of land outside of Ionia, Missouri (pop. 118). Her son and daughter, Michael and J.D., attend college, and her husband Mike is a music teacher and directs a bell choir. They have lots of cats and a goldfish pond teeming with bossy, headstrong goldfish. Sharing the pond with that rambunctious crew is one gentle red-eared turtle, Yertle. Behind the house grow three cherry trees, three apple trees, a corn patch, grape vines, and, on a good year, enough strawberries for Vicki to make a dozen jars of jam.
Vicki has written for magazines ranging from Twilight Zone to Reader’s Digest. She received the 1996 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for a story in American Girl. Altogether, she’s published about 300 articles and short stories. “Because it’s not such a huge time and energy commitment, writing a short story is kind of like eating popcorn,” she says. “Writing a book, on the other hand, is a big deal, sort of like Thanksgiving dinner. You’d get tired of snacking or feasting if you did it all the time, so I alternate!”
Eight of Vicki’s eleven books are middle grade or young adult novels for Putnam. Her most recent are Rimwalkers, Crystal Garden, Reaching Dustin, The Starplace, and Destiny. Reaching Dustin and The Starplace were School Library Journal Best Books of 1998 and 1999.
Vicki writes every day in a tiny white office her dad built in her hayfield. He modeled it on her childhood playhouse, and it has its own birdhouse (where a tree frog named Joop is living). A purple clematis vine snakes up the side of the office, and beneath it grows a white peony bush Vicki transplanted from her grandmother’s farmhouse in Illinois, the setting for Rimwalkers.
Vicki has written for magazines ranging from Twilight Zone to Reader’s Digest. She received the 1996 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for a story in American Girl. Altogether, she’s published about 300 articles and short stories. “Because it’s not such a huge time and energy commitment, writing a short story is kind of like eating popcorn,” she says. “Writing a book, on the other hand, is a big deal, sort of like Thanksgiving dinner. You’d get tired of snacking or feasting if you did it all the time, so I alternate!”
Eight of Vicki’s eleven books are middle grade or young adult novels for Putnam. Her most recent are Rimwalkers, Crystal Garden, Reaching Dustin, The Starplace, and Destiny. Reaching Dustin and The Starplace were School Library Journal Best Books of 1998 and 1999.
Vicki writes every day in a tiny white office her dad built in her hayfield. He modeled it on her childhood playhouse, and it has its own birdhouse (where a tree frog named Joop is living). A purple clematis vine snakes up the side of the office, and beneath it grows a white peony bush Vicki transplanted from her grandmother’s farmhouse in Illinois, the setting for Rimwalkers.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 31, 2008
Some really vivid imagery in this one. I kept wanting to sit the main character down and tell her there was nothing wrong with her, but then I want to do that with about 95% of female heroines in teen fiction.
November 2, 2018
Eliza is trying to make her life over. Moving to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere isn't her idea, but it is a place to start.
Dierdre is the neighboring girl. She's brainy, but not in the popular crowd. Eliza wants to be in that crowd and they know it.
The book is a fast read. It deals with several problems including wanting to fit in, loss of a family member, dealing with poverty, seeing life as it is and the meaning of friendship. It is a coming of age book. There are times when Eliza seems so naive, but young people often are.
Dierdre is the neighboring girl. She's brainy, but not in the popular crowd. Eliza wants to be in that crowd and they know it.
The book is a fast read. It deals with several problems including wanting to fit in, loss of a family member, dealing with poverty, seeing life as it is and the meaning of friendship. It is a coming of age book. There are times when Eliza seems so naive, but young people often are.
April 17, 2018
I originally read this book in about 5th or 6th grade I think? Still in love with it to this day, at age 27. I've reread it multiple times, and I still love it. I can't even explain why, it's just such a great story and I felt like I knew the characters. I connected to it. It's still my absolute favorite book, and I'd recommend it to anyone!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews