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Kristina (502 KP) rated The Summer Children in Books
Dec 7, 2020
So I somehow got it in my head that Summer Children came after The Butterfly Garden, and I didn't realize until I was already 1/3 of the way through that I was wrong. By then I was too far gone into the story to truly care, so I just kept reading. It was interesting, sad, heart breaking. It had a completely different feel to The Butterfly Garden, but of course, if I had read the correct book in the correct order, it might not have felt so discombobulated. Either way, I was held captive by the story. The dynamic between Mercedes, Vic, Eddison, and now Sterling, makes me smile so big. They are goals. I don't know if there will be another book, but if there is, I'll be reading it!
Melissa (4 KP) rated The Secret Garden in Books
Jan 20, 2018
I love this children's classic. Mary Lennox is sent from India to Misselthwait Manor where she meets Dickon the brother of Martha, one of the house maids, and Colin, the son of the owner of Misselthwait . Mary and Dickon find the secret garden that has been locked for many years and bring it back to life. This story is touching and captivating.
Bird (1700 KP) rated Abbey Road by The Beatles in Music
Jun 28, 2017
Has everything - invention, craft, musical brilliance, superb production (4 more)
The eclectic mix of styles and moods from the gloriously feel-good here Comes the Sun to the curious Octopus' Garden
Utterly timeless
Vocal performances and harmonies are consistently stunning with special mention to 'Because'
George Martin's genius shines through again. Technically decades before its time.
In my humble opinion, the greatest album of all time
Claire (5 KP) rated The Secret Garden in Books
Feb 9, 2018
The Secret Garden
Kept hidden away from everyone and .are to think he's really ill this story tells how you can do anything you set your mind too. It's great how it features friendship so well and not just humans. And the story is so well thought off bout discovering secrets. Is such a fantastic book and definitely a classic
The Bandersnatch (199 KP) rated The Secret Garden in Books
Nov 7, 2019
Written and published in 1911 the secret garden started its life as a serialization ten issues of in The American magazine (November 1910-August 1911), before being published by the American publishers Fredrick A. Stokes in August 1911 and by British publishers Heinemann later that year. However Copyright expired in the states in 1987 and inmost other parts of the world by 1995 placing the book in public domain and resulting in several abridged and unabridged editions being published. The book has the theme of Rejuvenation and regeneration, showing that if something is neglected it dies and if its worked on and cared for it thrives (Like Mary, Colin and the garden do).
The story starts at the turn of the 20th century and follows Mary Lennox, a sickly and unloved child born abroad and brought back to her wealthy uncles house after a Cholera outbreak leaves her an orphan. As Mary gets used to her new isolated home she learns of a private walled garden once owned by her aunt forever locked by her uncle and hears crying which eventually leads to her cousin Colin. With Mary telling Colin stories about the moor, her friend Dickon and the secret garden she has access to, Colin is inspired to join her outside and as such both children improve beyond belief.
The books working title was Mistress Mary in reference to the English Nursery Rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. Parts of the book was written during Burnett's visits to Buile Hill park, Maytham Hall in Kent, England. She'd lived there for a number of years and the garden was cited as influence for the book. Burnett herself kept an extensive garden however its noted besides the garden Maytham hall and Misslethwaite Manor are physically very different.
Having been marketed to both adults and children the reception may have been affected. The book was not as celebrated as Burnett's other books during her lifetime and paled in comparison to the popularity of her other books. The books revival could be traced by an almost complete eclipse at the time of Burnett's death in1924. With the rise of scholarly work in the past twenty five years the book has risen in popularity and prominence. Its often noted as amongst the best books of the 20th century. It ranked 51 in the Big Read (BBC Survey), was named amongst the Teachers top 100 books for children in 2007 and in 2012 ranked 15th in the all time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal.
There have been Six movies (1919, 1949, 1987, 1993 and 1994), a TV show (1975), a Musical (1989), an Anime TV series (1991), an Opera (2013), Even a colouring book published (2013) from the book each one with various degrees of popularity and success. There will be a new 'The Secret Garden' movie which is being produced by David Heyman and Rosie Alison with the Production company Heydey films and Studiocanal. Both Colin firth and Julie Walters are set to star as Mrs Medlock and Archibald Craven and the release date will be the 17th April 2020....I am very excited to go see it.
The Author is Francis Hodgson Burnett and her bio segment is in last Tuesdays book club on The Little Princess if you would like to read it.
MY OPINIONS
I came across the book after seeing the 1993 movie when I was 9/10 years old. I went looking for the book bought it and started reading. I really really like the book and I agree that the theme of rejuvenation and regeneration definitely runs through the book. I love this book and definitely will be reading it to my future children. I give this book 8/10.
The story starts at the turn of the 20th century and follows Mary Lennox, a sickly and unloved child born abroad and brought back to her wealthy uncles house after a Cholera outbreak leaves her an orphan. As Mary gets used to her new isolated home she learns of a private walled garden once owned by her aunt forever locked by her uncle and hears crying which eventually leads to her cousin Colin. With Mary telling Colin stories about the moor, her friend Dickon and the secret garden she has access to, Colin is inspired to join her outside and as such both children improve beyond belief.
The books working title was Mistress Mary in reference to the English Nursery Rhyme Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. Parts of the book was written during Burnett's visits to Buile Hill park, Maytham Hall in Kent, England. She'd lived there for a number of years and the garden was cited as influence for the book. Burnett herself kept an extensive garden however its noted besides the garden Maytham hall and Misslethwaite Manor are physically very different.
Having been marketed to both adults and children the reception may have been affected. The book was not as celebrated as Burnett's other books during her lifetime and paled in comparison to the popularity of her other books. The books revival could be traced by an almost complete eclipse at the time of Burnett's death in1924. With the rise of scholarly work in the past twenty five years the book has risen in popularity and prominence. Its often noted as amongst the best books of the 20th century. It ranked 51 in the Big Read (BBC Survey), was named amongst the Teachers top 100 books for children in 2007 and in 2012 ranked 15th in the all time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal.
There have been Six movies (1919, 1949, 1987, 1993 and 1994), a TV show (1975), a Musical (1989), an Anime TV series (1991), an Opera (2013), Even a colouring book published (2013) from the book each one with various degrees of popularity and success. There will be a new 'The Secret Garden' movie which is being produced by David Heyman and Rosie Alison with the Production company Heydey films and Studiocanal. Both Colin firth and Julie Walters are set to star as Mrs Medlock and Archibald Craven and the release date will be the 17th April 2020....I am very excited to go see it.
The Author is Francis Hodgson Burnett and her bio segment is in last Tuesdays book club on The Little Princess if you would like to read it.
MY OPINIONS
I came across the book after seeing the 1993 movie when I was 9/10 years old. I went looking for the book bought it and started reading. I really really like the book and I agree that the theme of rejuvenation and regeneration definitely runs through the book. I love this book and definitely will be reading it to my future children. I give this book 8/10.
Tracey Thorn recommended The Magic Faraway Tree in Books (curated)
Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated Grandma's Garden in Books
Jan 9, 2020
Grandmas Garden by Sudeep Bhuller is a very cute book and I could see it being given as a gift to a grandma who likes reading to her grandchildren. The book states that it is a great visual treat for babies discovering shapes and colors. While it is very colorful the images have soft edges and the shapes are not very well defined.
In this book, children are walked through Grandmas Garden. The bright flowers and fruit trees are pointed out early on. Everything from cats and birds to tiny snails and millipedes are shown. Children also get to see ladybugs, bees, and even butterflies that may be harder to see up close in nature.
I really liked how bright and colorful the book is. It offers many opportunities for parents to have children point out what is being talked about on each page. Reading this book offers opportunities to find the cat or snail and count the ants or birds. Reading this right before taking a child out to plant a seed might be a fun activity. What I didnt like was that at times while reading it out loud it felt as if there should be rhymes when none were present. The flow of the book is disrupted if you try to read it as a story. If you read each page as an individual and not part of a whole it is not as bad.
For target readers for this book, the author was correct in saying that infants and toddlers will enjoy having this book read to them. I know my two years old seemed to enjoy it. I rate this book 3 out of 4. While the book is beautifully illustrated and walks children thought the things they may find in a garden, I can not give it a perfect score. The problem with how the book doesn't flow very well did cause it to lose points with me.
https://nightreaderreviews.blogspot.com/
https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/grandmas-garden
In this book, children are walked through Grandmas Garden. The bright flowers and fruit trees are pointed out early on. Everything from cats and birds to tiny snails and millipedes are shown. Children also get to see ladybugs, bees, and even butterflies that may be harder to see up close in nature.
I really liked how bright and colorful the book is. It offers many opportunities for parents to have children point out what is being talked about on each page. Reading this book offers opportunities to find the cat or snail and count the ants or birds. Reading this right before taking a child out to plant a seed might be a fun activity. What I didnt like was that at times while reading it out loud it felt as if there should be rhymes when none were present. The flow of the book is disrupted if you try to read it as a story. If you read each page as an individual and not part of a whole it is not as bad.
For target readers for this book, the author was correct in saying that infants and toddlers will enjoy having this book read to them. I know my two years old seemed to enjoy it. I rate this book 3 out of 4. While the book is beautifully illustrated and walks children thought the things they may find in a garden, I can not give it a perfect score. The problem with how the book doesn't flow very well did cause it to lose points with me.
https://nightreaderreviews.blogspot.com/
https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/grandmas-garden
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2165 KP) rated The Plot Thickets in Books
Oct 27, 2022 (Updated Oct 27, 2022)
Fresh Body in the Cemetery
Lilly Jayne has received a suggestion that the Garden Squad look at the historic cemetery because some of the areas have been neglected. When Lilly and Delia head out there one afternoon, they find more problems than they were expecting. Yes, some areas desperately need to be weeded and tended to in other ways. But Lilly also finds more graves than she is expecting to see in the middle of historic family plots. While she isn’t completely sure if she can trust her memory or not, she begins to investigate. When a fresh body turns up above ground near the Jayne family’s crypt, Lilly starts digging deeper. Can she find what happened?
I always love getting to spend time with the Garden Squad. Their friendships are fantastic, and I love the town of Goosebush. The rest of the characters are strong as well. Unfortunately, I felt the pacing was off in this book, especially in the first half. This isn’t anything new for this series, but it felt worse than usual here. There is a good mystery, it just needed a little pruning, and once the action picked up, I was kept guessing until the end. As always, there are some garden tips at the end of the novel. I enjoyed visiting my friends again, and fans will as well, even if the plot could have been stronger.
I always love getting to spend time with the Garden Squad. Their friendships are fantastic, and I love the town of Goosebush. The rest of the characters are strong as well. Unfortunately, I felt the pacing was off in this book, especially in the first half. This isn’t anything new for this series, but it felt worse than usual here. There is a good mystery, it just needed a little pruning, and once the action picked up, I was kept guessing until the end. As always, there are some garden tips at the end of the novel. I enjoyed visiting my friends again, and fans will as well, even if the plot could have been stronger.
Zach Braff recommended Harold and Maude (1971) in Movies (curated)
Kate (355 KP) rated Gardenscapes in Apps
Feb 8, 2019
Played this for a while as I enjoy games with a bit of a storyline, the main aim in the game is to collect points which you can then use to decorate the garden with. Hundreds of levels but as you progress further into the game the levels get harder and harder and cannot be completed without help which of course costs money. The points needed to buy equipment so got higher and higher so making it difficult to progress.