I requested this one from one of the libraries in my local system and ended up with a beautifully illustrated version quite by happy accident.



The Secret Garden is one of my POPSUGAR challenges, "a children's classic you've never read". I have, however, seen the 1993 film adaption and I was surprised to see how faithful it had been to the source material. They aged up Mary, Colin and Dickon a bit, but the overall story is very much the same, without the more blatant period-typical racism we see in the novel.

Mary is an unpleasant young girl, raised in British-occupied India, whose parents died in a cholera epidemic. She is shipped off to northern England to live with her gloomy widower uncle, Archibald Craven. The adults around her spend quite a lot of time discussing how ugly and sallow she is - thankfully the fresh air of the moor will cure what ails her! That and like, being forced to dress and entertain herself. The horror!



The Secret Garden is a love letter to nature in general and the wild moors of England specifically - we see it work wonders on plain, disagreeable Mary and her spoiled, invalid cousin Colin. Dickon, born on the moor, seemed to be hatched out of the very forest, a nature boy who has a cadre of wild animals absolutely in love with him. The joy the children have in growing and planting and maintain the garden is magical - and truly, they believe it to be Magic itself helping them along. It's a sweet story that would go along very well with many kids who are interested in having their own "bit of earth" for the first time.