![]() ![]() And here's the thing: Frances Hodgson Burnett knew what she was talking about from both sides of the parent-child equation.īurnett had a rough childhood. What is The Secret Garden About and Why Should I Care?Įver felt like your parents just don't understand? Like they can't even bother to get to really know you? The Secret Garden is all about the damage that neglect can do to kids-emotionally and even physically-if their parents don't pay any attention to them. Like the young adult bestsellers of today, The Secret Garden has always appealed to a range of readers across the generations. But, perhaps because of its complex, sometimes unlikeable main characters, Burnett published The Secret Garden as a magazine series for adults before releasing it to a more general audience as a novel in 1911. In fact, it ranks fifteenth of the School Library Journal's list of Top 100 Children's Novels. This definitely isn't Annie, and no one is singing "Hard-Knock Life."ĭon't get us wrong: The Secret Garden is a great book for kids to read. Unlike Sara Crewe, these kids aren't sweet little tykes looking on the bright side every time something bad happens to them. Thanks to the publications of Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1885 and A Little Princessin 1905, Burnett had already established her reputation as the writer to turn to if you want to read stories about optimistic, adorable orphan children experiencing Victorian England.īut The Secret Garden is a little different from her earlier, more sentimental works: It features two kids, Mary Lennox and Colin Craven, who are complete jerks. When Frances Hodgson Burnett came out with The Secret Garden in 1911, she was already really popular in both England and the States-the One Direction of Victorian lady authors, if you will. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |