emmarie_ 's review for:

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

4.75

---

 A dour girl moves into a mysterious house and is slowly brought to life when she discovers an abandoned garden and begins spending a lot of time fixing it up. A boy with a vague lifelong illness is seemingly cured of his maladies when he learns about and visits the garden, too. These two characters receive a lot of help with these things from a third boy who charms woodland creatures, as well as those woodland creatures themselves. I adored this book as a child (I had a crumbling copy that belonged to my mother and aunt when they were children-- how I wish I still had it!) and still do. It's nearly perfect, except for the sprinkles of crude racism that are totally extraneous to the plot and characters (why hasn't anybody removed those few sentences)?? I also don't love the tacit implication that the sick boy (and perhaps all chronically ill people) simply needs a little fresh air or a compelling reason to live to be completely cured. But I suppose that may be true for some people and I can't completely knock it. Other than that, this book is fantastically well-written, marvelously paced, and teeming with beautiful descriptions of lush greenery and the magic of falling in love with the natural world.