The Secret Garden (Wordsworth's Children's Classics) [Paperback]

Mistress Mary is quite contrary until she helps her garden grow. Along the way, she manages to cure her sickly cousin Colin, who is every bit as truculent as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, cooped up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors, until a locked-up garden captures their imaginations and puts the blush of a wild rose in their cheeks; "It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of roses which were so thick, that they matted together.... 'No wonder it is still,' Mary whispered. 'I am the first person who has spoken here for ten years.'" As new life sprouts from the earth, Mary and Colin's sour natures begin to sweeten. For anyone who has ever felt afraid to live and love, The Secret Garden's portrayal of reawakening spirits will thrill and rejuvenate. Frances Hodgson Burnett creates characters so strong and distinct, young readers continue to identify with them even 85 years after they were conceived. (Ages 9 to 12) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

a jolly good, heart-warming classic. (The Daily Mail ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

A new edition of this magical tale of Mary and her secret garden --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Mary Lennox was horrid. Selfish and spoilt, she was sent to stay with her hunchback uncle in Yorkshire. She hated it.

But when she finds the way into a secret garden and begins to tend it, a change comes over her and her life. She meets and befriends a local boy, the talented Dickon, and comes across her sickly cousin Colin who had been kept hidden from her. Between them, the three children work astonishing magic in themselves and those around them.

The Secret Garden is one of the best-loved stories of all time.

Frances Hodgson Burnett became a writer to support her family after the deaths of her parents. Her best known works are The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess. She died in 1924. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.