The Secret Garden

Locations
Call Number: J BOCD Fiction / Burnett, Frances, Kids BOCD / Fiction / Classic / Burnett, Frances Hodgson
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Kids 4-week checkout	J BOCD Fiction / Burnett, Frances	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Kids A/V 4-week checkout	Kids BOCD / Fiction / Classic / Burnett, Frances Hodgson	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Unabridged.
Gibson, Flo.
A ten-year-old orphan comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors and discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

Summary / Annotation
Fiction Profile
Excerpt

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

The Robin submitted by erksnerks on June 20, 2012, 3:17pm One of the most lovely books to bury one self in, adult or child. Life lessons, great characters, suspense and gardens, what more can you ask for. Skip ropes, robins, wind across the moores.

Great submitted by zmclaugh on July 22, 2018, 7:35pm This is a lovely, classic story.

The Secret Garden submitted by Varshini on July 30, 2019, 10:53am I really enjoyed listening to this book after reading it. The Secret Garden is a great classic!!

What a lovely book. submitted by graytabby on August 2, 2021, 7:19am It's a classic, and you should read it. About the importance of family and helping each other.

Problematic submitted by Jen Chapin-Smith on June 10, 2022, 2:55pm As a child, I loved this book. However, reading it now to my own child, I can see how much sexism, racism, ableism and other kinds of prejudice are written into the text.
The book alternates between speaking negatively or condescendingly about people in India, to exoticizing them, such as when the author compares Colin to an Indian prince. When the main character, Mary, stands up for herself or stands up to her cousin, the author acts as if she is just spoiled, instead of an assertive girl who can become a leader.
What bothered me the most, however, was how the author treats Colin's disability as imaginary. (Warning: spoilers ahead). Once he gets into the garden, Colin slowly learns to walk. Colin goes from being told he has scoliosis and therefore will die young, to being convinced he will die young, to talking himself into health and deciding he will "live forever." This may have been the way people thought at the time, but I found I had to explain to my children that in reality People with Disabilities are not faking it.