The time garden (A Voyager/HBJ book) [Paperback]

Edward Eager (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1985 | Series: A Voyager/HBJ book

Four cousins spending a summer in a house by the sea discover a magic thyme garden from which they embark on a number of adventures back and forth through time.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

N. M Bodecker has illustrated many childrens books written by Edward Eager such as "Time Garden", "Seven Day Magic", "Magic by the Lake", and many more.

Edward Eager was a playwright and lyricist who turned his hand to children's books after reading the stories of the great British fantasist E. Nesbit. His seven books remain among the most popular children's fantasies ever written by an American. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152881905
• ISBN-13: 978-0152881900
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,726,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time and Time Again, July 10, 2001

By 

Haley Parnham (NJ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Time Garden (Paperback)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll never look at thyme the same way again, August 23, 2000

By 

Ivy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Time Garden (Paperback)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A THYME FOR HISTORICAL TRAVEL, May 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Time Garden (Odyssey Classic) (Paperback)

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!