When Orphaned Mary, sickly and lonely and cross, comes to live at her Uncles great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of secrets. Down a corridor of empty rooms she hears someone crying in the night. Outside, she meets Dickon, a magical boy who can charm the wild animals and birds of the countryside. And a robin Mary has befriended shows her the way to a walled, locked garden that has been completely forgotten for years and years. Is everything within the garden dead or can Mary make it grow again?
This is a spectacular children's story plot, very unique, and not something I had ever read, I read this book when I was about nine, the recommended age, but I think it could be rated eight and up. There are two things I noted that make the age depend on the child, Mary drinks a glass of wine, and in the start of the start of the story Mary is always ill, later the book introduces another ill character.
Then one more thing depends on the reader of the book, genre. There are multiple genres wrapped up in one in The Secret Garden, Fiction, Fairy Tale, Classic, and Mary appears to have an innocent crush on Dickon. So, if you or your child like any of the genres above you might have a new favorite night story.
Notes
Illustrations: Tasha Tudor.
