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The Secret Garden (Dover Juvenile Classics) (平装)
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
| Category:
Fiction, Self-recognizing & friendship, Ages 9-12, Children's books |
| Market price: ¥ 98.00
MSL price:
¥ 88.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A heartwarming, truly timeless classic written more than a hundred years ago telling how a spoiled and sickly orphan discovers the pleasures of blooming flowers, friendship, good health, and high spirits in the restoration of an abandoned garden. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 14 items |
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Sammy Madison (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
This is truly a great book. The book starts in India, 100 years ago. Mary is neglected by her parents. Mary is not a beautiful or healthy child, the hot humid air and the narcissism of her popular, immature mother have seen to that. When the adults around her are killed by disease, Mary is shipped off to the lonely manor house of her uncle, Archibald Craven. The grim housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, accompanies her on a cold, dark, rainy journey across the moors, and attempts to quash the child's spirit. But Mary is strong and stubborn, and begins secretly exploring her new world! And being out of doors as spring comes to England changes Mary. She begins to make friends: Martha, the servant girl from a cottage on the moors, her magical, pan-like brother Dickon, and her cousin Colin, a child even more messed up than Mary. Outdoors, she makes friends with the gruff old gardener, Ben Weatherstaff and the perky little English robin who shows her a wonderful secret garden. The gardener Ben, and Martha and Dickon's wonderful mother provide a counterpoint to Mr. Craven, Mary's parents, and the nasty houskeeper and family doctor who have caused so much damage to Mary and Colin. The children, both so traumatized by the disfunctional adults who are in charge of them, use the power of nature and exercise to regenerate their own physical and mental health. Descriptions of how the children discover the beauty of the moors and the gardens that surround Misselthwait Manor have introduced generations of children to the love of plants, animals, and the out-of-doors. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
Ten-year-old Mary comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden. My favorite parts of this book are when Mary finds the secret garden and when she finds Dickon. I think what the author is trying to portray is that nature is magical. I would recommend this book to other people because it fills you with wonder and excitement. I give this book five stars. |
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Fitzwilliam (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
I first found this book in the fourth grade, two decades ago. I liked it then, I love it now. A child spurned, a child lost, a child at home in nature, children finding healing in the secret place as heart touches heart touches healthy heart. Their love touching the heart of the father. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
A heartwarming, truly timeless book. I read this with my 6th grade class and was amazed at how much they got into it... even the boys! I read it with them to expose them to something more thought-provoking than Goosebumps, but they seemed to grow wiser and more mature. Months later, they were still comparing current events to situations presented in the book. As an added bonus, their taste in literature improved dramatically. |
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S. cardullo (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett tells the tale of a girl named Mary, who is very selfish and willful due to the fact that her parents left her in the care of Indian servants as an infant. She was even known as "Mistress Mary quite Contrary" by kids of her age. When she moves from India to England, she gradually changes from her obstinate self to a kindly, helpful girl with the help of Dickon, an English servant's brother, and Colin, her guardian's ignored son. Mary finds the key to a magical garden, locked up for ten years by her hunchback guardian. Together with her friends, she slowly brings the garden back to life. The more the garden grows, the more she develops into a healthier and well-rounded person. Through the garden she has many adventures that help her to forget her brutal past. I liked this book a lot. It was interesting to see that a book would begin with the character being a mean and unhappy girl. The reader can actually visualize Mary becoming a kind and caring friend. I like the way Burnett shows the characters' development through many interesting details. |
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T. Tak (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
I have always thought that classics were such a bore. Reading Walt Whitman or Shakespeare made me yawn. But The Secret Garden was different, because it had a lot of depth to its very Romantic plot and even now, we can relate to and analyze this from various points of view. What I found the most thrilling in the novel was Mary's transformation from an angry little girl to a beautiful lady with a beautiful mind. This has close ties with Marxism, the struggle to distribute power between classes. When Mary was in India, hidden from the rest of the rich family, she was called "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary." She was always so cross, and nothing could satisfy her. She always whined, and even her dearest servant Ayah's absolute submission could not please Mary. However, due to a tragic epidemic that kills pretty much everyone in her Indian home, she is sent to Uncle Craven's house in England. This is the point when she learns to play outdoors, respect servants and becomes healthier. Not only does her transformation end there, but she also spreads the happiness that optimism brings by approaching Colin, a sick heir of the house. He is hidden in a small room in the enormous mansion, because Uncle Craven thinks Colin will grow up to be a hunchback. Mary proves everyone wrong, and makes Colin healthy by making him run around the secret garden. The Garden's transformation is also remarkable. It was initially abandoned after Uncle Craven's wife died and Mary works on the garden to make it alive again, with the help of Dickon, a servant at the mansion. As the garden blooms again, Colin's body recuperates and becomes healthy again. This Romantic story is well-supported and gives us insights into high much our environment can influence our lives. I strongly recommend this book: it will never bore you. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
I've always been in love with this book. There's so much aliveness to the writing, so much feeling and yet simplicity. As an adult, I can come back to this one and thoroughly enjoy it, feel the darkness of the house where our heroine is taken, so different form her life in India. It's a book about another time, wistful, sad, and realistic. I particularly like the descriptions of Yorkshire - how it can be both grim and beautiful, dark and light. Coming from there, I know it well, and I can't help thinking that the reason I like the desert here so much is that it has the same bleakness and emptiness as the Yorkshire moors. The characters are alive, well made, and have their quirks. They eventually get over themselves and find a new joy in the secret garden. Not many children's books deal with depression in adults (the bereaved father) and there's just enough to make you think. Or at least I did. |
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A reader (MSL quote), UK
<2007-01-04 00:00>
You cannot go wrong with this book... it maybe bound up under a 'classic' label and surrounded by an aura of English Victoriana, but it is actually very modern, wild and extremely magical. It is of the great books for children and adults that is truly influential to the spirit. The reader shall glow. It invigorates the soul through prose that envelopes the interactions of the changing sides to simple characters. The children's perspective is straight-forward and inquisitive for revelations beyond their own stubbornness. One feels oneself as a child again, powerless and sensitive to being at the mercy of elders' moods and situations. There is a great philosophical element within these pages. A great realism to the characters and a great naturalism in the setting that brings it alive. It is almost a re-invigoration of the soul through the spirit of children and their experience of nature. The story will live forever, filled as it is with a healing energy. That there are some spirits keeping a sense of destiny in our lives, with the chance to grow, yet with an awareness of the positive and the negative. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
This book is both mysterious and adventurous. The main character Mary Lennox is a ten-year-old girl, whose parents both died from cholera. Mary is forced to move from India to Yorkshire, England, to live with her widowed uncle Mr. Craven. There she makes her very first friends, and transforms herself into a kind, caring, and pretty girl. Fortunately for her, Mary stumbles upon the key to the secret garden. The main problem of the story is that Mary and her friends don't want anyone to find out. That they spend their days out of doors in the garden. I think anyone who enjoys adventures or gardens would really like the book The Secret Garden. In conclusion the interesting plot, characters, and problem combine to create one excellent book The Secret Garden. |
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Benedict (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-04 00:00>
The Secret Garden is truly a classic, written more than a hundred years ago. I think all young people and their parents should read or listen to this book and be familiar with the author's philosophical points, which are: what you think is what you are, and will become if you are not careful; that one can examine one's own character flaws and correct them so that life is better; and that positive thoughts and feelings bring the best result. The grandest point is that working this "magic" with self and others can create unintended good effects a thousand miles away. I believe the story and the points of view of Mary and Colin are important talking points between adults and children. They could be watchwords between parents and their children all the way to 18 years of age when discussing personal behavior. The reason is that Mary and Colin are objective and can be discussed as a third party instead of blame and shame between a parent and child. In the book, adults and children were polite to each other, at the last even under stress. Is it not odd that you want a child to listen to this book and be influenced by it; and that you let a child watch smash-mouth cartoons Saturday morning and hope they will not be influenced by the astonishing violence and shallow characterizations? I thoroughly enjoyed this Book for the Heart even though I am an adult. It is a classic on a par with Alice and Wonderland, which is another book I really like. The reading of The Secret Garden was wonderfully done, though the sound of the characters Mary and Colin sounded authentic but made my ears arch sometimes. |
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 14 items |
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