Saturday Short: The Secret Garden

Goodreads Summary: Since 1911, the The Secret Garden has charmed readers of successive generations. Now in this wonderfully illustrated volume, another generation can delight in the story of Mary Lennox--an unattractive, unloved little girl, sent to live at Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire Moors after her parents' death. There, along with her invalid cousin Colin, she is drawn into a magical world of the secret garden--where Mary and Colin are transformed by the beauty they find there.

I read this once before, a really long time ago when I was a little girl and addicted to such stories and since we are reading so many old classics in my Children's Literature into Film class I just had to pick it up again to see if I felt the same.

For those of you that have read a lot of stories from this time period you'll see a lot of similarities what with the orphans, spoiled children and the "magic" of friendship. Despite this I think its well worth the read. [And not just because its a classic...its the kind of book that leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside when you flip that final page.]

Despite the fact that you're fairly surrounded with spoiled children the book is sweet, you feel compassion for them and want things to work out. Its an easier story to slip right into and if you're anything like me you'll finish it in a single sitting, you just can't easily pull yourself out of the world that the author is dictating to you. Even as an adult [I'm twenty-four now as I'm going back and rereading this classic] it still catches me in the same way, even knowing what is coming next I eagerly read on and fell just as much in love with it as I did the first time I ever picked it up.

4/5