A Secret Worth Sharing: The Secret Garden
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. 1911.
A book ahead of its times! The ending is so oddly in tune with contemporary thought on happiness and depression, Burnett could have written Burns’ classic self-help tome, Feeling Good. That aside, the timeless story is one of survival and friendship -- two little wretches who grow into healthy, strong, loving young people. Interesting isn’t it that research shows those who live close to nature are happier than city-dwellers? Burnett didn’t need a study to know it. More thoughts of note:
- The writing is decidedly lovely. So Thomas Hardy but with more joy, less romanticism and angst (though not without a touch of angst!). You could open it to almost any page and get a passage like this: “Fair fresh leaves, and buds—and buds—tiny at first but swelling and working Magic until they burst and uncurled into cups of scent delicately spilling themselves over their brims and filling the garden air” (283). The narrator voice is close to characters and reader and though seldom addresses the reader directly, involves him or her in the telling of the story.
- A rare story in which none of the central characters are at all likeable. Mary is cross and sullen and ugly. Colin is a wretched brat. And Colin’s father is depressed and self-absorbed. Yet the narrator gives us reason for the children’s flaws such that we forgive them long enough to allow change. And change they do. Masterful, worthy of status of classic.
Tuck Everlasting. I first read this in upper elementary when I was in a special "advanced" reading class where I got to spend the English hour on the beanbags in the corner and read my way through Newbery classics.
This was one of my favorite picture books as a child. In the late 80s I was an older child—8ish. Anyway, I so felt for the little girl’s plight. I loved her sad courage, her imagination, and her escape at the end.
Reading it now though...
Lear was the youngest of 21 children and was brought up by his sister, who cared for him until he was nearly 50. He was an eternal child with “invincible boyishness,” according to the editor. This collection...
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Interesting opening, full of subtle tension. But what is the narrator dying from want of? What’s the promise of the first page?
Similar in voice to Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting, White’s is written in a pleasantly distant third person with an air of mystery, like the story that is unfolding is Very Important. Some things of note...
What a strange book. Jarrell’s is the story of a hunter and mermaid who fall in love and make a family from a bear cub, a lynx, and an orphaned boy. The story is uncannily realistic for all the lack of realism...
I have this story in a set of old blue storybooks from the 20s. My grandmother read it to me when I was a girl. It was my absolute favorite then, and I still enjoy it now. It’s considered to be absurdly racist, primarily the stereotyped...
Love the voice. “Mama’s gonna wear you out.” It sings with authenticity with enough description to make the setting vivid without being overwhelming, and all of it is in Cassie’s voice (more or less), which makes it interesting as well as...
S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders. Amazing. Hard to believe this novel was written by a teen. What trumps all here is a sympathetic protagonist and a strong storyline. Hinton can get away with...