Customer Reviews

The Time Garden (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Edward Eager's Tales of Magic)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Edward Eager continues to entertain decades after his death through his books about ordinary children who experience magic. THE TIME GARDEN was always one of my favorites (oh, okay, I admit it - I like all of Edward Eager's books and can't really pick a favorite). Roger, Ann, Eliza, and Jack encounter time traveling at its finest when they are exiled to spend the summer with old Mrs. Whiton. An interesting note, their mothers were two of the children in HALF MAGIC and MAGIC BY THE LAKE also by Eager. A bank of wild thyme in the garden opens doors to the past, present and future for these four delightful children. If it's imagination you are looking for, look no further. Edward Eager's books are witty and wild and funny. There is a certain degree of sophistication in his style of writing that makes these stories interesting even for the mature reader.

In this sequel to Knight's Castle, the four kids - Roger, Ann, Eliza, and Jack - are together again, this time staying at the house of a distant relative, Mrs. Whiton. Mrs. Whiton just happens to have a rather extraordinary garden, which includes a sundial (inscribed "Anything can happen...when you've all the time in the world"), every variety of thyme known to man (except common), and a Natterjack. Naturally, time travel adventures ensue.

The Natterjack is a character reminiscent of the Psammead in E. Nesbit's The Five Children and It - he's an inherently magical creature with a great deal of power and the potential for good advice, but also a difficult personality with an ego and a temper. He's also a frog. And he gets the children into no end of trouble - like when he sings "Rule Britannia" in an American pub during the Revolution.

And Roger, Ann, and Eliza are just as nifty as they were in Knight's Castle. Jack, however, features rather less in The Time Garden, as he's plunged into the throes of adolescence and spends most of his time making phone calls. (Isn't it good to know that some things never change?)

The children, with the help of a little thyme, visit the ride of Paul Revere (with singing Natterjack), a stop on the Underground Railroad, and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, among other adventures.

The book is fun, and funny, and you will have new feelings for thyme when you're finished with it. Lots of children would enjoy this book, and those adults who like children's literature will love The Time Garden.

Genre: TIME TRAVEL. This fanciful book presents 4 children enjoying a seaside summer on the Massachsuetts coast; they meet a curious creature in the garden, who introduces them to the magic and mystery of the thyme plants in the herb garden. These plants are the Vehicle for travel, both in time (American history) and in space (back to England where their parents are vacationing).

On each of their trips they try not to change anything (obeying their own, temporal Prime Directive, as it were) yet they wonder if they inadvertantly may have done so. Their tour-guide is the froglike Natterdog. The story moves right along, even though there is little connection between chapters (trips back in time). We have the usual Kids-outwitting-naive-Adults formula of course, which elementary children so enjoy. This book is very easy to read, light-hearted and has clever chapter titles which use the word TIME. A fun read!

The irrepressable kids from Knight's Castle are back, in a second magic adventure (too bad Eager never got to write more for these characters-they are completely modern despite being written eons ago, but not obnoxiously so)

When Roger's dad writes a play, the kids are temporarily dumped at an ancient house overseen by a frequently-absent housekeeper, and as they roam the garden filled with thyme plants, they meet the British froglike creature called the Natterjack. Using certain kinds of thyme, they can transport themselves through thyme... er, time. But, naturally, there are going to be some peculiar scrapes.

The characters are a bit blander than in Knight's Castle, but they still have their charm. Eliza protesting that her legs are NOT too long is one wonderful moment; the Natterjack singing "Rule Britannia" in front of Revolutionary War Americans is another.

Dang, but the Natterjack is fun! An odd, rather self-absorbed little creature that wields some impressive magic, he makes life strange for the four adventuring kids. This was the last of the foursome's adventures, sadly. Only wish that someone could pick up Eager's slack the way someone did for John Bellairs.

there was a thyme garden and the children found out it was magic. It was great and adventurous.

Fun. The childrens guide was called the Natterjack. There were different sorts of thyme plants and every time they picked one they went to another time!

I'm a big Edward Eager fan, and this is my favorite of his. Something about the setting of this book is extra-magical to me. The children spend the summer in a beautiful old house by the sea that has a large garden filled with all different kinds of thyme that can magically transport the kids to various times and places. The plays on words are cute, the Natterjack is a great character, and their adventures are fun...including a trip to visit the March family from Little Women. All-around great book!

This is an affectionate revival of the format of some of the best Victorian Fairy-tales. Four children are staying at an old New England house by the seashore where they find that the "thyme" garden tended by a mysterious creature will allow them to go back in time.
This book is heartwarming and good humored and shows a talent for character and the building of atmosphere. I liked it when I was younger but I like it more now.

I loved this book as a child, and still do as an adult. I've created a thyme garden (complete with Natterjack and sundial) in my own yard in homage. The play on words in the title is a mere hint of the delights to be found inside, and I do wish Mr. Eager had lived to write more of his utterly charming books. I recently loaned this to an adult friend with some trepidation, but she LOVED it, and requested everything by Mr. Eager I own. These books can be enjoyed by both adults and children and what higher praise for a children's book is there?

Travelling in time with the four children from Knight's Castle, the reader visits a house in the Underground Railroad, the March family from Little Women and the courts of Elizabethan and Victorian England, as well as a side trip that readers of Half Magic will recognize. As always, the characters have unexpected quirks, and the children get themselves into some pretty bad messes, only to be rescued by the venerable old Natterjack who grumbles at the effort, but always comes through. Funny, literate and enchanting, this book should appeal to everyone!

This is antoher fine children's classic by the master of modern fantasy, Edward Eager. In The Time Garden the four children we first met in Knight's Castle: Roger, Ann, Jack, and Eliza are spending the summer at an old New England house by the sea. The house has a thyme garden and a magical creature called the Natterjack who helps the children take a series of magical adventures through time/thyme. Eager had plenty of fun punning his way through this one, and his readers will enjoy it as well. As with all of Eager's works, there are many literary and historical references here which will spark childrens' interests and help them explore their own imaginations and libraries. Adults looking for quality writing for their children will be eager to acquire all of Edward Eager's works, and those adults who were fortunate enough to encounter these books in their own childhood, as I was, will be glad to know that they remain as fresh and funny as they remember.

This is a GREAT book! I read it about 5 months ago and still remember it clearly!
UNFORGETABLE!!!!!