Customer Reviews

Secret Garden

5 star:		(312)
4 star:		(91)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

For those of you who haven't read this, you should.

It's the story of Mary Lennox, who grew up in India, extremely spoiled by the servants, whose only job was to keep her quiet and out of the way of her parents. After her parents die she's sent to live with her uncle in England, a crotchety old man mourning the loss of his wife, who also wants nothing to do with her. Lonely, spoiled Mary explores the manor and the garden, finding all sorts of hidden secrets as well as her own happiness.

A must-read for children and adults. It's the kind of story that just makes you feel warm and comfortable inside.

I read this a couple times when I was a young teenager and now I just read it again 10 years later. It is still one of my favorite books. I love the theme that children need activities and hobbies and exercise to stay healthy, physically and mentally. I wish I had my own secret garden inside a stone wall :)
I think this is a wonderful book for any young child to read. The characters are good and the story is so beautiful.

Who won't like this book? Well... I know that some parents these days feel it is a boring book which requires to much of an attention span. But children need and benefit from classics like this which require thought and which have a profound and telling message. It is a must read book for any family who values the classics and who feels that children need a balance of computer, sports and quality reading material.

Set in Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire moors, Mary Lennox who has been orphaned arrives from India at her uncle Mr. Archibald Craven's home where she discovers a cousin Colin who is sickly and spoiled. ALmost as much as she is. In time Mary discovers that her cousin simply needs some encouragement and the once spoiled girl becomes a secret cheer leader of sorts and they set out to get Colin walking. One of the characters I adored so much was the gardener,who knows that the two have discovered the secret garden that Colins mother had adored and tended so well, which has become overgrown and like the two young children, simply needs some tender loving and consistent care. The children are very careful because they get Colin ouside using the wheelchair since they want to use the garden as a tool for also helping Colins physical therapy. In a few months not only is Colin able to walk and get about but the garden is flourishing which as the story continues will become the healing tool for the uncle (Mr. Archibald Craven)who has been heartbroken and aloof since his wifes death. Like the Little Princess this book deals with death, loneliness and deep subjects.

The Secret Garden - my mum gave me this book when I was about eight and in the front it says: "for Kate, who will stay up reading until the wee hours of the morning." and it is true. I've read this book many times since then and I discover something new each time.

The characters are wonderful, especially Mary, Colin, Ben Weatherstaff and the "Yorkshire angel" Dickon. The changes that happen to both Mary and Colin throughout the book are a delight to observe.

I feel protected and happy once I've finished this book, things turn out happily, for the best and the image I have in my head of the Secret Garden surpasses anything I have ever seen in real life - and that is fine, for this is literature.

Read it.

I hadn't read The Secret Garden since I was a kid. I'm so glad I found it on Kindle and read it again as an adult! What a wonderful story! And as a free Kindle book, it's hard to pass up!

I gave it 4/5 stars only because the formatting didn't quite come out perfect (a few squares with question marks in it appeared). Still, it's easy to read despite the few errors.

Yes, that's a wild claim, against such wonderful books as the Wizard of Oz and Charlotte's Web. But I still have my copy of The Secret Garden and remember how I marvelous felt as a child when I first read it. The moment when Mary walked under the ivy into the secret garden gave me chills.

This book combines gentle "magic", that is, the spiritual side of things, and a fairy tale story of two neglected children who are healed by the help of that "magic", some good simple people, and a tragedy greater than themselves. Their coming out of their selfish ways into greater health and wisdom is a lesson for everybody. It's told in a charming style, with much atmosphere. Reading it gives you a taste for the greater things to come in literature.

This is a perfect book to read aloud to children, or to present to any child who is old enough to read it.

Mary is a sour nine-year old girl whose neglectful parents die in India and she is taken to an even more neglectful uncle in a gothic castle in a remote part of England. Interest in something outside herself is sparked when Martha, the servant assigned to look after her, is shocked that Mary never learned how to dress herself. There had been no need. Martha has other duties so Mary is left alone. Her explorations lead her out in the late winter air and to an obsession with finding "the secret garden." She discovers an even bigger secret of another child in the house.

Through magic and exercise, both children are transformed. This highly entertaining book is a wonderful read for all ages.

Ages 9 and up the cover informs which at age 50 allows me in on one of the most beautiful reading experiences of a lifetime. It is romantic in the best sense of the word: one thinks of Blake's "to see a world in a grain of sand," or in this case in a secret garden. For this is a romance of two odd, solitary children who fall in love--not with each other--but with the world. To grow from isolation to friendship, from solitude to joy, from loathing of self to delight in nature, the themes are standard but deeply felt and movingly evoked in simple but lovely prose. The world is beautiful, once wrote Thomas Merton, to remind us we were originally meant for paradise. The Secret Garden is another such reminder. "I'm going to live forever and ever and ever," Colin famously exults and in this great book for children and adults he does and he does and he does.

I am an urban, public school teacher with a fifth grade reading group. The girls, as well as the boys, found this book to be spellbinding. I had students trying to smuggle copies of the book out of the room at the end of our period - just so they could read the next few chapters!!!

This book is a brilliant read for anyone old enough to feel heartwarming towards Mary and Dilan as they form bonds with nature to create a new life for the garden they find. The book starts with mary left alone and forgotten in the world, she cryes and sleeps until 3 dayes later she is accidently found and sent to live with her uncle. This starts her friendship with Martha (her chatty chambermaid) and so Dilan, Marthas' brother. When Mary finds the garden she recrutes the help of Marthas family to help her restore it. Together they are propelled into the livly and entertaining world of the secret garden and the magic it holds. An excellent read for any age and a story that stays for life like an old friend. 5 stars.