Ten-year-old Mary Lennox, who has lived in India all her life, is sent to stay with at her uncle Lord Craven’s Misselthwaite Manor in England when her parents died of a disease. Mary has never had a friend all her life and her parents had never bothered much about her. This makes Mary an obnoxious, sullen little girl who always expects her servants to wait hand and foot on her.
As Mary tries to adapt to the strange new ways in her new home, she improves in physique and character. She passes the time by exploring the gardens and trying to make conversations with an old gardener Ben Weatherstaff. Martha, a young chambermaid, is also the only other person who usually speaks to Mary.
Soon, Mary befriends Martha’s younger brother Dickon who has a way of charming animals around him. She lets him in on a secret that she found out a little earlier. She has discovered a garden which was abandoned for 10 years with the door’s key buried somewhere. By some stroke of luck, she found the key, entered the secret garden and felt that she was in a whole new world. So together with Dickon, they begin to work to bring the garden back to life.
Besides the garden, Mary uncovers another secret in the manor that has a hundred rooms. She stumbles upon her 10-year-old sick cousin Colin one night when she followed the sounds of his crying. From then on, she would visit him every day to talk and play, without them realising that they were making each other better and learning to enjoy their childhood at the same time.
I have watched the 1993 movie version
Descriptions were abundant in the book and it made me a little more knowledgeble about gardens and flowers. I was also a bit puzzled but tickled when I read that Dickon has a funny face. How can a person’s face look funny? But Dickon is a good-natured boy and it would be difficult not to like him.
The book got off to a great start but it slowed down for me halfway. It thankfully got better after three-quarter of the book until the ending. I’m glad that I have finally read the book as I have watched two movie versions of it, and like I mentioned earlier, I really liked the 1993 one starring Kate Maberly.
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When I first heard of 
, I thought it’s short for some scientific term that I did not know. Was I surprised when I found out that it’s short for The Big Friendly Giant! This is also the third Dahl book that I’ve read and it’s entertaining. The only set-back was the extraordinary words that Dahl created and the BFG’s broken English.
came out in cinemas. Unfortunately, I did not watch the whole movie yet and I think that Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka is quite suitable. After all, Mr. Wonka is an eccentric character and I’m sure Depp plays the role to perfection.
. Oh, Dahl probably doesn’t like the television very much. The joy and wonders of reading is clearly stressed in one of the Oompa-Loompas’ songs!
This is the second time I’m reading something by Noel Streatfeild. The story starts with Harriet Johnson who’s not feeling very well and does not look very well either. She’s nearly ten years old but she doesn’t have the energy and vivacity of normal ten-year-old kids.
What an interesting book! And imagine if you had SIX brothers and sisters, seven if you include yourself! Wouldn’t it be fun and rowdy everyday, fighting and playing with your numerous siblings? That’s what life is for the Ruggles family who live at Number 1, One End Street in Otwell.
Ballet Shoes For Anna is a tremendously beautiful story for children as well as adults. It is a story of three children who had the misfortune of losing their family and home in an earthquake in Turkey. The children are Francesco, 10, Gussie, 9, and Anna, 8. They led an almost extraordinary life for their parents, Christopher and Olga, lived in a caravan and they traveled frequently.
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