The Secret Garden

Title: The Secret Garden
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett, Retold by Louise Betts
Genre: Realistic Fiction

This version of The Secret Garden is a shorter and more accessible version of the story for younger children. However, the basic plot of the story did not change from the classic. The story begins by introducing Mary Lennox, a disagreeable child who lives in India with her parents who had never planned on having a child. After a vicious virus sweeps through the town, Mary is the only one left alive and is sent to England to live with her only living relative, her Uncle Craven. Mary quickly realizes how different England is from India, from the weather to the interactions between people. When Mary arrives at Uncle Craven's luxurious home, Misselthwaite manor, she is greeted by his housekeeper Mrs. Medlock. She is a cold woman who only interacts with Mary out of necessity. Misselthwaite manor is a large and desolate place, and when Mary hears what sounds like moans and cries she becomes curious with the old place. After meeting a housemaid named Martha who tells Mary that there is an alleged "secret garden" on the grounds, Mary goes to investigate. To her surprise, she is led to the secret garden by a friendly robin. In her secretive visits to the garden she meets a gardener of the surrounding grounds and Martha's younger brother Dicken. One day upon wandering the manor, Mary finds the source of the moans and cries she has been hearing- her cousin Colin, who was so ill her could not walk. Her Uncle Craven rarely visited him because he was saddened by his sons condition. Mary befriends Colin and secretly takes him to the secret garden. There she, Dicken, and the gardener expose him to the fresh air and nurse him back to health. Colin finally began to walk, and surprised Mrs. Medlock, and his father. The secret garden was opened so that all could visit it, and Mary began to be a friendlier and happy child now that she had her garden and a happy family to live with.

When Mary moves from India to England, she experiences quite a bit of culture shock. A follow up activity for children after reading this version of the secret garden would be to research two different countries customs and cultures, and to compare and contrast their similarities and differences.