Green Willow's Secret

by Eileen Dunlop

Kit's discovery of a "secret" Japanese garden is the beginning of a healing process as her family disintegrates and new friendships add new, enriching dimensions to her life.

Genres: Middle Grade, Fantasy, Young Adult

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Eileen Dunlop has lived in Scotland all her life. Born in Alloa, 13 October 1938, she was educated at Alloa Academy and Moray House College, Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Kit is an adopted child who doesn't get on with her adoptive parents biological daughter Juliette. When we join this story Juliette has already died, Kit and her adoptive parents, Peter and Laura are grieving and struggle to connect to each other. Peter goes to work abroad and Laura and Kit move to a rented house called Maddimoss. When a boy called Daniel calls at their door looking for a person called Maddimoss, he ends up staying with them for a bit and Kit decides to show him a Japanese garden she has found. The garden is uncared for and they start to tidy it up. They notice some carvings and feel a presence there. Soon more mystery unfolds around the garden and the family who owned it.

This was a good story, with some interesting ideas, plenty to think about and guess what was happening. At 160 pages it felt as though the book would have benefited from being longer, so many characters stories all fitted in to the mystery, their lives felt too condensed and then quickly and neatly tied up at the end. The reaction of the family to Juliette's death was realistically portrayed but one or two parts seemed unlikely such as Laura admitting to Kit that Kit was her favourite child and that Juliette was Peter's This was a read aloud and my daughter really enjoyed it and rated it 4 stars, I felt there was too much crammed in although there were plenty here I enjoyed.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet story about an adopted girl, Kit, who has moved with her mother to Maddinmoss House while their new home is being built. In an overgrown Japanese Garden, Kit, together with her new friend, 16-year-old Daniel, learns some ghostly secrets as they try to tidy up the plants and repair the tea hut and shrine. Set in small town Scotland, the story has an atmosphere that is very reminiscent of Lucy Boson.

[Jemina Feyarro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as someone suggested it may be a book I was looking for that I read in childhood and even though there were many differences which made it seem unlikely, I also thought there were enough similarities that it was a very real possibility. Having read it now, I'm certain this isn't a book I've ever read before though I'm sure, around the same time I read that other book, I would have enjoyed this one just as much. It contains many elements I was always fascinated with, particularly ghosts. I also loved Japanese gardens as a child so I'm sure this side of the book would have appealed to me as well. Sadly, coming to the book for the first time in adulthood, I found the whole thing a bit dull. Readable but (somewhat ironically) not in any way memorable.

I would have given two stars but for one line which really spoke to me on a character's experience of being mixed race "Then in World War II, the British and Japanese fought against each other. I knew where my loyalty lay, but sometimes I felt I was being torn in two." I'm not half Japanese but still I relate to the last part of that sentence a great deal. I think if I'd read that as a child it would likely have startled me and made me think about my own mixed heritage in a way I didn't actually do until much later. It's pretty rare to find something like that talked about in a children's book, certainly from a book published in the 90's in any case.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing has been the same for Kit since her sister Juliet died last year. Her family has left Edinburgh to live in a rented flat in the countryside, her adoptive parents look like splitting up, and nobody knows that Kit ms Juliet weren’t devoted sisters. Then one day Kit visits the Japanese garden, and suddenly things start to change…

Written for a younger audience than Eileen Dunlop’s best books, this still shows her usual delicate insights into the complicated feelings children have for their families and family histories which aren’t as straightforward as they might appear. Her evocation of ghosts as figures from the past who want to say something to the present here is benign. Even though it’s a quick read, this is one of Dunlop’s books to stick in the mind.

[LuAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kit's emotions about her sister and her death are hard but real, as is her mother and father's responses and Daniel's actions and relationship to his dad. The supernatural element is gentle and intriguing. I really enjoy Eileen Dunlop's well-written, well-plotted books. They often involve true-to-life family situations and emotions before it was common for many J/YA books to do so. It's too bad they aren't well-known or in reprint.

[Ejayen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remarkeably cheerful for a ghost story.

[Willow · Rating 1 out of 5]

so boring and so badly written. I picked this book at the library because of the title. This is not worth it, just don't bother.