The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Maura Hahnenberger
7th grade
Van Antwerp Middle School
One classic that I read and liked was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgsen
Burnett. I thought this was a very good book. One reason I liked it was
because it had many lessons in it. Lessons such as to try new things and
not to be self-centered.
This book was about a girl named Mary who lived in India. Her parents died
when a deadly disease struck the village and Mary was sent to Yorkshire
to live with her uncle who was a hunchback. As soon as Mary arrived many
wonderful and magical things began to happen and Mary made some wonderful
discoveries in and around the old Misslethwaite Manor.
I think this is a very good book for anyone. If you are a boy or a girl,
12 or 22, you will really enjoy this book. This can happen because the
different people, places, and things appeal to different people. This is
a wonderful book full of wonder, magic, and, most important of all, imagination.
Jaime Fraser
Seventh Grader
Van Antwerp Middle School
The Secret Garden is a very good book filled with imagination, friendship
and self-believing. The characters are wonderful, and as they grow into
bigger and better people, readers grow with them.
The book starts with Mary Lennox, an orphaned girl who goes to live with
her only living uncle. She is very lonely (and bratty!) and she begins wandering
around the property. She soon comes across a locked garden and a bird helps
her find the key. It is all messed up, but with the help of friends, she
soon cleans it up. The book is about their adventures there.
The other characters in this book help with the garden too. Mary gets most
of her help from Dicken, a local boy whom animals love. He befriends Mary
immediately and they set to work on the garden.
Colin Craven is Mary's sickly cousin, who she dosen't know exists
at first.
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