The Secret Garden (Paperback)

~ (Author), Sandra M. Gilbert (Introduction)
Key Phrases: pale green points, animal charmer, secret garden, Ben Weatherstaff, Mistress Mary, Miss Mary (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

If this is magic, it is good magic. -- The New York Times

Review

If this is magic, it is good magic. (The New York Times)

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Signet Classics (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451528832
• ISBN-13: 978-0451528834
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,666 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mistress Mary, quite contrary..., November 1, 2003

By	kate (melbourne) - See all my reviews

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.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Secret Garden, May 2, 2008

By	J. Neese (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still a favorite, August 27, 2008

By	Maggie Bishop (Boone, North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews

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.