The Secret Garden book review

The Secret Garden

This book ‘The Secret Garden’ was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. ‘The Secret Garden’ is a popular novel and a classic of English children's literature. The book was entirely published in 1991 but it was published at first in a serial format in 1990, during autumn.

The book is about a girl named Mary Lennox. She was spoilt and sour so she had no friends. Her mother didn’t care about her nor her father. Her mother only cared for parties and how beautiful she looked. In one of the parties her parents attended. Her parents left Mary with their servants. During the party, Mary’s parents and all the guests caught a fatal disease and died. The disease spread around the whole area. The servants left Mary’s room because Mary didn’t need any assistance. When the servants went outside, they caught the fatal disease so all them died. On the other hand, Mary was still locked in her own room, feeling very bored. However, Mary didn’t catch the disease. Some days later, some investigators went into Mary’s house to look for any survivors. She was still standing in her room when the investigators came. They tried to look for any Mary’s relatives. Finally they found one family with two children so she moved in the family’s house. The family of four was in England. One of the children, Basil always teased her by copying a rhyme and changing the words to Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow, with silver bells and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row. Not long after, she moved to her uncle’s mansion. A well-mannered and good-natured maid of her uncle, Martha Sowerby tells Mary a story about Mary’s aunt. After hearing the story, Mary’s ill-manners started to wear away. She realised her uncle’s mansion had a garden. Mary followed a friendly robin to a hidden door to a secret passageway. She soon found the key to the door, dug in the ground. In that secret garden, she found dead plants and the swing that caused her Aunt's death. Soon, she made the garden beautiful again. When her uncle came back, he realised Mary went into the garden, making it beautiful and he noticed his son could walk. He was so happy that he made the garden not forbidden any more.

My favourite character is Martha Sowerby because she had to company Mary even though Mary was ill-mannered. But soon Mary enjoyed her company because she was good-natured and kind. Martha tolerates Mary’s behaviour and went with it. Soon Mary liked her so her ill-manners went and good-manners took its place.I like Martha Sowerby because if she was not there, Mary’s behaviour would still be aggressive and rude.   

The author wants to tell us that people doesn’t always stay the same. They can always change when they are helped or encouraged.

I would rate this 10/10 because this book is very interesting.I recommend this book for children aged 10 and over. This book is very interesting and is very fun to read.