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Synopsis: When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle’s great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of secrets. The mansion has nearly one hundred rooms, and her uncle keeps himself locked up. And at night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors.

The gardens surrounding the large property are Mary’s only escape. Then, Mary discovers a secret garden, surrounded by walls and locked with a missing key. One day, with the help of two unexpected companions, she discovers a way in. Is everything in the garden dead, or can Mary bring it back to life?

Fuller Description: Mary Lennox is a little British girl growing up in colonial India in the care of a sequence of maids. Her father is an officer in the British army and her mom is very busy with the vital business of dinner parties and nice clothes, Mary barely knows her own parents.

And since she spends all of her time alone, she’s selfish, demanding, and self-absorbed. Her parents die suddenly of cholera, leaving her in the care of her mother’s brother, Archibald Craven.

Mary’s uncle doesn’t care about her and he brings her to his huge mansion in England, Misselthwaite Manor, and basically leaves her there on her own. Mary’s maid Martha is a cheerful Yorkshire woman who won’t stand for Mary’s spoiled tantrums and fits. She tells Mary all about two things which is the turning point in the story: (1) There is a walled garden on the grounds that has been sealed off since the death of Archibald Craven’s wife ten years before; and (2) Martha has a little brother named Dickon who loves gardening and wild things.

Of course, Mary discovers the walled garden and finally stumbles on the long-lost key to the garden and opens it up.

She begins working in the garden. The exercise and outdoor time improves both her physical and her mental health, and Mary stops being quite so much the spoiled princess that she was at the beginning of the novel.

The rest of the story revolves around Mary and Colin Craven, Master Craven’s invalid son; about other characters like Mrs. Medlock, head of the servants; Martha Sowerby, Mary’s maid, Ben Weatherstaff, a brusque but kindly old gardener; Dickon Sowerby, and Susan Sowerby…

The Secret in the Secret Garden. Colin’s health improves gradually!

Eventually, Master Craven was asked to come and see his son and he returns immediately to Misselthwaite. Just as he lays his hand to the doorknob, Colin comes rushing out and falls into his arms. Father and son are reconciled, and the miracle of Colin’s recovery becomes known to all.

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Sky Island by L. Frank Baum https://www.createspace.com/6446563Mistress 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 imperious as she. These two are sullen little peas in a pod, closed up in a gloomy old manor on the Yorkshire moors of England, 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)