The Secret Garden

It was incredibly difficult to pick just one favorite book this week. I read a whole bunch of amazing books this week. A View from Saturday (E. L. Konigsburg), Keys to the Demon Prison, Fablehaven 5 (Brandon Mull)the final book!, A Spy in the House, The Agency 1(Y. S. Lee), and lastly, The Red Pyramid, Kane Chronicles 1 (Rick Riordan). They were all awesome and any other week could have made my number one. 

Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Secret Garden
Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. (2004 ed.), 1911
Middle Grade, Historical Fiction, Classic

"When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Mannor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen."

I never read this classic as a child but I did watch the movie, many times. I bought the book a few years ago, and I'm thrilled that I did. This story about two spoiled and unloved children learning to live and care about other people makes me want to go out in a field and frolic in the sunshine. I am not a gardener by any means, but a secret garden, a place to go where no one knows you are or how to find you. A place that is your own little hiding place. A place that is yours because you nurture it and help things to grow. A wild place in nature, to be alone, or with your very best friends exclusively. That kind of place is appealing to me.

This book is about people and a garden coming alive. Mary is a orphan who was neglected by her parents. Colin is a cripple who was neglected by his father. Both are spoiled and self-centered. But the garden gives them something to care about, a new idea for both of them. And their new friend Dickon is there to show them how, to introduce them to animals and the moorlands.

I also love Misselthwaite. A huge British house in the moorlands, with so many rooms to be explored. That sounds like a great time to me.

I love this book. The end.