new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: frances hodgson burnett, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 13 of 13
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: frances hodgson burnett in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
Hello and Welcome to our first installment of the Read Kid’s Classics Challenge! I’m so glad you’re here and I can hardly wait to see what you’re reading as well. As many of you already know, I am a huge fan of children’s classics and over the years my family has actively read old classics and discovered new ones. In 2016 one of my many goals is to discover even more classics and share them with you, my valued readers.
So from now on, every month during my Read Kids Classic Challenge, I am going to present one classic that I simply can’t live without!
Joining me in this book-ish and fun campaign is a handful of powerhouse bloggers who are excited to share their very own #readkidsclassics picks! Please feel free to visit these five #ReadKidsClassics bloggers to see what classic book reading fun they have created.
I don’t think it will surprise anyone what my first Read Kid’s Classics Challenge pick is going to be, and I have a very good reason for that! I picked this book because it was my first kid’s classic and it became my favorite friend and companion throughout my childhood, ….no, throughout my life.
What could that incredible book be? Why The Secret Garden of course.
It was such a favorite book that I even wrote an activity guide to bring the entire book alive, month by month. What I would have done to be Mary and to live at Misselthwaite Manor but most of all to enter that garden.
OK, so knowing this about me, can you imagine my excitement this past November when I got to meet the author of the Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) great grand-daughter? Oh it was really incredible. I had a little fan girl moment but then again so does her great grand-daughter Penny Dupree. Frances was just the most remarkable person and Penny has dedicated her life to getting her great grandmother’s story out.
While writing A Year in the Secret Garden I discovered that Frances Hodgson Burnett (FHB) started her writing career here in East Tennessee where I live. Last November was the 150th anniversary of her move from England to America and I was honored to be invited to participate with all of the fine folks of New Market, and Jefferson City.
So Let Me Share a Little About Frances Hodgson Burnett (FHB)
Now that you’re in my inner reading circle we’ll always refer to Frances as FHB. So reading friend I have to share with you that FHB was a most remarkable woman. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, FHB was accomplished woman. She started writing to support her family who had just immigrated to the United States. From the moment she penned and published her first word, she was never turned down by a publisher. At the time of her death she had over 1000 magazine articles, 55 books, and several plays.
In her lifetime she was very well-known and admired as a writer as well as very wealthy. She was an adventurer crossing the Atlantic ocean round-trip 33 times. We owe a lot of thanks to FHB because she is the person who established copyright laws. Another writer tried to steal her story Little Lord Fauntleroy by turning it into a play. FHB wasn’t having any of that, she rewrote her own story into a theater piece and opened up directly across the street from the man who had stolen her story. She ended up running him out of business. Because of this she said that nobody should be allowed to steal another person’s work and so she established the preliminary copyright laws we now hold very dear. At the bottom of that statue are the signatures of some of the most famous writers of the time in the United States.
Penny Deupree in her presentation also shared somethings that wouldn’t be considered good about her great grand mother such as she smoked, drank, and swore. She also suffered the death of one of her sons which left a huge hole in the family. The story has continued thru her great grand-daughter and now her great great grand-daughter who is writing a book about FHB.
During our time together I gave a copy of my book A Year in the Secret Garden to Penny and her family and they just loved it and were so moved. I have to share that I felt FHB was shining down on me and giving her two thumbs up. It was totally an affirmation. Since our time together in November I have felt her on a couple of occasions, like the idea of building a Secret Garden in the city where I live. I’m so glad that inspiration has led me into the Secret Garden and filled it with a lifetime of memories.
(Photo of Penny Deupree and her grandfather Viven Burnett.)
I wish the very same for you. If you sign-up for our Read Kid’s Classic Challenge, this month I’ve prepared a beautiful Secret Garden PDF with loads of activities. It’s completely free.
What’s the Read Kid’s Classic Challenge ?
Every month during our Read Kids Classic Challenge we are going to present one classic that we can’t live without. We’d like you to join as well.
To Participate:We’d like you to share one kids classic that you can’t live without every month. Share it on your blog, vlog and social media using the hashtag #readkidsclassics once a month to let us know what you’ve been reading.
If you should choose to post about your kids classic choice, please let us know the following within your blog post:
- WHEN did you Discover This Classic?
- WHY did you Chose to Read It with your Family?
- WHAT Makes It A Classic?
- WHAT did you Think of This Classic?
Here’s how I classify classics as old or new (this isn’t an official classification it’s just sort of the way I think of it):
Old Kid’s Classics are those books written before 1950. New Kid’s Classics are those books written after 1950.
But that’s not all
When you sign up for the 2016 Read Kid Classics Challenge every month you will get a PDF that you can download which will have loads of activities on the particular book we’ve chosen to share at Jump into a Book. Each edition of Read the Kids Classics will highlight the story, have good things to eat in our kitchen called Table of Contents, give behind the scenes gossip about the author, easy crafts that kids can do on their own in our craftiness section, questions for the curious, explorations into the world of our featured books, as well as further connections via books like this one and topic booklists so you can find more good reads and finally a visit to the word wizard for some word play.
And Still There’s More-Free Books!
Sign up and join Jump Into A Book’s #ReadKidClassics Challenge to participate in our monthly adventure of sharing personal classic children’s favorites and activities.
On the last day of every month, JIAB will go on a book adventure; an adventure that will put participants in the running to win a bundle of book classics to fill your shelves with. This adventure could be in the form of a Instagram scavenger hunt or as easy as commenting here on JIAB. We just want participants to have fun and earn free books!
As part of this fun book-ish adventure, I will be creating free monthly PDFs of a #ReadKidClassics book and book extensions to give to all participants for their own family reading and fun.
We’re so excited about our challenge. Sign up below and we’ll see you there 
Loading…
The post Read Kid’s Classics Challenge: March’s Selection (#readkidsclassics) appeared first on Jump Into A Book.
By: Joanna Rakoff,
on 6/2/2014
Blog:
PowellsBooks.BLOG
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Amy Waldman,
Dawn Powell,
Joanna Rakoff,
Madeleine LEngle,
Thomas Pynchon,
Judy Blume,
Q&A,
Anne Frank,
Frances Hodgson Burnett,
Charles Lamb,
L M Montgomery,
Add a tag
Describe your latest book. My Salinger Year is a memoir about my sojourn as the assistant to J. D. Salinger's agent, a job that involved answering his fan mail, typing letters on an ancient IBM Selectric, mastering an archaic device known as a Dictaphone, and generally coping — or trying to decipher — the odd, [...]
What’s your favorite children’s book setting?
The travel site cheapflights.co.uk has published an infographic exploring some of the most beautiful real-life locations from children’s books.
We’ve embedded the complete infographic below along with free digital book links to some of the books for your for your Kindle, iPad or other eReader.
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
#15 The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
88 points
This the very first book I read by myself, and my dad insists I read this book to him over 1000 times. It’s one of the few picture books I keep on my shelf, rather than my son’s. – Erin Moehring
Back before having small children zapped my time/attention span, I read this every year around March. Because it feels like spring. And “Here Comes the Sun” is my favorite song. These may be related. – Amy M. Weir
How nice to start a book with an irritating child instead of a lovable one. And Mary’s plea, “Might I have a bit of earth?” has been calling across the decades to hundreds of young readers who long for—something. It took Frances Hodgson Burnett to give that yearning a shape, and even if the shape isn’t quite what a particular child might ultimately choose, the reader knows the feeling for what it is. This is a book about hope. Its old-fashioned plot about Colin being healed rather mystically is almost beside the point. There’s just something magical about that secret garden. – Kate Coombs
Coming in at #8 on the previous poll, Mary Lennox slips a little, leaving wide open another spot on the top ten. Meanwhile this is almost a perfect children’s book.
The synopsis from the publisher reads, “Has any story ever dared to begin by calling its heroine, ‘the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen’ and, just a few sentences later, ‘as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived?’ Mary Lennox is the ‘little pig,’ sent to Misselthwaite Manor, on the Yorkshire moors, to live with her uncle after her parents die of cholera. There she discovers her sickly cousin Colin, who is equally obnoxious and imperious. Both love no one because they have never been loved. They are the book’s spiritual secret gardens, needing only the right kind of care to bloom into lovely children. Mary also discovers a literal secret garden, hidden behind a locked gate on her uncle’s estate, neglected for the ten years since Colin’s birth and his mother’s death. Together with a local child named Dickon, Mary and Colin transform the garden into a paradise bursting with life and color. Through their newfound mutual love of nature, they nurture each other, until they are brought back to health and happiness.”
A.S. Byatt once referred to Frances Hodgson Burnett as “Perhaps the first truly transatlantic writer.” This may strike you as strange, until you know the woman’s history. When The Secret Garden was written Ms. Burnett was living in . . . wait for it . . Long Island, New York! Tis true. According to Elizabeth Keyster in the October 1991 edition of Hollins Critic, ” An Anglo-American, Burnett came to the United States while in her teens, returned to England for nine years in midlife, then spent the remainder of her life in this country.” By this point in her career she’d already written Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess so her reputation was secure. According to Anita Silvey’s 100 Best Books for Children, “First serialized in American Magazine, the story appeared under the title ‘Mistress Mary.’ It sold out its first edition even before publication and was widely read by adult fans of Burnett’s earlier books, but it achieved little notoriety during the author’s life.” Instead, she got far more praise for Fauntleroy of all things. Says Silvey, “In fact, her New York Times obituary never even mentioned The Secret Garde
#56 A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905)
37 points
At eight, I found nothing as exciting as a poor mistreated orphan. Swoon! - Anna Ruhs
I read this again fairly recently and couldn’t capture the sense of wonder that I had as a child, but refreshing the story in my mind was enough to make me remember falling in love with a book. - Pam Coughlan
Ah, the Burnett begins! Last time we clocked A Little Princess in at #27. This time it’s #56. Notice how so many books have fallen in their ranks? What can account for their replacements? Heh heh. You’ll see . . .
The plot description from the publisher reads, “In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic tale, Sara Crewe learns that deep down, being a real princess is an attitude of the heart. She is a gifted and well-mannered child, and Captain Crewe, her father, is an extraordinary wealthy man. Miss Minchin, headmistress of Sara’s new boarding school in London, is pleased to treat Sara her star pupil as a pampered little princess. But one day, Sara’s father dies, and her world suddenly collapses around her. However, Sara does not break, and with the help of a monkey, an Indian lascar, and the strange, ailing gentleman next door, she not only survives her sufferings but helps those around her.”
There were actually three versions of this story in the end. Says Twentieth-Century Children’s Writers, in the publication St. Nicholas the short story, “Sara Crewe [Or What Happened at Miss Minchin's?] first appeared in 1887. It was a story drawing on some of her experiences as a child at the Miss Hadfields’ school in Manchester, but was set in London. Like nearly all Burnett’s stories, its theme is the reversal of fortune.” Still. It wasn’t quite enough. Burnett would later say, “Between the lines of every story there is another story. … When I wrote Sara Crewe I guessed that a great deal more had happened at Miss Minchin’s than I had time to find out just then.” In 1902 Burnett turned the story of Sara Crewe into a play. “The following year, her editor at Scribner’s came up with the suggestion that she write a new, longer version of the book under the play’s title, A Little Princess, incorporating the new material she had introduced in the play. He wanted the book quickly, the play was still running and sales would be splendid. Fortunately at that point Burnett was committed to two other plays. The book was not rushed and was not finally finished until November 1904.”
Of course, one has to mention the use of Ram Dass, the Indian servant who brings Sara such magic. As Eileen Connell pointed out in the article Playing House: Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Victorian Fairy Tale that “Like other discourses of this period, the story represents India as the locus of the exotic. In doing so, Burnett obscures the reality that the imperialist exploitation of India contributed significantly to the economic expansion in nineteenth-century Great Britain that both produced and upheld the ideology of separate spheres informing British domestic life . . . Instead of representing an Indian who gratefully receives the fruits of English civilization, Burnett constructs an Indian who gives Sara the services and commodities representing his subjugation to a country that robs his own country of its resources.”
On the flip side, Mitali Perkins had a loving ode to the book in her Paper Tigers piece Books Can Shape a Child’s Heart. After recounting her own childhood response to Sara’s unselfishness
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
We had to read this in class and it was very, very , very, very,(you get the point) boring. I was looking at the reviews that people gave it. How could you like this book. The average customer review and it was five stars. It should be more like 1 stars. I gave it 1 stars. The only part that was O.K. is when she is looking for the key. But the author makes it drag on so it isn’t that good. I would recomed this book only to people who like very slow and boring books. My teacher said that she just loves this book, but it really stinks. I think this book should be banned from the whole world. I hope the author who wote this book will read this review.
I love that the reviewer hopes the author (who died in 1924) will read this review. Really?
By: Nicola,
on 4/2/2012
Blog:
OUPblog
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
wind in the willows,
frances hodgson burnett,
secret garden,
Humanities,
Peter Hunt,
wonderland,
oxford world classics,
*Featured,
willows,
t8pvn5pnp1u,
Literature,
children's literature,
Video,
youtube,
kenneth grahame,
garden,
treasure,
classic literature,
treasure island,
OWC,
wind,
oxford world's classics,
hunt,
Add a tag
For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics have brought readers closer to the world’s finest writers and their works. Making available popular favourites as well as lesser-known books, the series has grown to 700 titles – from the 4,000 year-old myths of Mesopotamia to the twentieth-century’s greatest novels. Yet many of our readers first acquainted themselves with an Oxford World’s Classic as a child. In the below videos, Peter Hunt, who was responsible for setting up the first course in children’s literature in the UK, reintroduces us to The Secret Garden, The Wind in the Willows, and Treasure Island.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Click here to view the embedded video.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Click here to view the embedded video.
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Click here to view the embedded video.
Peter Hunt was the first specialist in Children’s Literature to be appointed full Professor of English in a British university. Peter Hunt has written or edited eighteen books on the subject of children’s literature, including An Introduction to Children’s Literature (OUP, 1994) and has edited Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island and The Secret Garden for Oxford World’s Classics.
Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 11/26/2011
Blog:
The Children's Book Review
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Angelica Shirley Carpenter,
Classics,
Chapter Books,
Lewis Carroll,
Author Interviews,
Biographies,
Robert Louis Stevenson,
Teens: Books for young adults,
Cultural Wisdom: Books that teach,
Frances Hodgson Burnett,
L. Frank Baum,
Add a tag
By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: November 27, 2011
Anjelica Shirley Carpenter
Angelica Shirley Carpenter is the author of many acclaimed biographies written for young people including Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden, L. Frank Baum: Royal Historian of Oz, Robert Louis Stevenson: Finding Treasure Island, and Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking Glass. She also edited In the Garden: Essays in Honor of Frances Hodgson Burnett. Carpenter is the founding curator of the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at California State University in Fresno.
Nicki Richesin: Thank you for agreeing to do this interview. I know our readers will be fascinated by your writing life. You have established an impressive career as a biographer of many beloved and celebrated children’s book authors including Frances Hodgson Burnett, L. Frank Baum, Robert Louis Stevenson and Lewis Carroll. How did you first begin writing your books?
Angelica Shirley Carpenter: I began about 1988 when my mother Jean Shirley retired and moved from St. Louis to live near me in Palm Springs, Florida. Mother had already published several biographies for children and she arrived in Florida with a good idea for a new one, about Frances Hodgson Burnett. Oh, and she wanted us to write this together. In St. Louis Mother had found and read The One I Knew the Best of All, Frances’ autobiography of her childhood, and she thought that it would make a good starting point. I was running a small public library at this time, and I knew that children still read and loved The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, so I agreed that Frances would make a good subject. We established that the only biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett for young people had been written by her daughter-in-law in 1965. It lacked illustrations and, worse, it omitted certain incidents that were embarrassing to Frances’ family, like her divorce and remarriage. So we decided to write a more accurate account of her life and to try to publish it with photographs and illustrations from her books.
Your mother Jean Shirley was your co-author on three of your books. Could you tell us about her influence on your life and how you collaborated together?
This year is the centenary of the publication of The Secret Garden which the British author and friend of Frances Hodgson Burnett (FBH) called, 'a sort of child's Jane Eyre.' There are lots of interesting parallels; Yorkshire, an isolated house, an absent owner and a girl who turns up, orphaned and alone.
I’ve just been on a wonderful study day on The Secret Garden, held by the Children’s Historical Book Society. I received my copy of the book as a prize when I was nine and someone else on the study day had exactly the same version with her, for the same reason.
I fell in love with the book straight away. We often visited Yorkshire as we had family there and I loved tramping over the moors. We also visited Haworth and marvelled over the tiny handwriting of the Bronte sisters, viewed through a magnifying glass.
I found Mary and Colin so strange and compelling, Martha was like the big sister I never had and I was probably in love with Dickon. The book has remained a favourite ever since.
On arriving at the Study Day someone showed me a handwritten, undated letter which had fallen out of a second hand book she had recently acquired. Here is the transcript :
Maytham Hall
Rolvenden
Kent
Dear Mrs Parkes,
I should come with the greatest of pleasure now that I know that I shall not be a pariah and an outcast.
Yours sincerely,
Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Two of FBH’s biographers were next to me, Ann Thwaite ( who also wrote a biography of A.A. Milne) and Gretchen Gerzina, from New York. The letter caused quite a stir and according to the experts, probably referred to FBH’s unhappy relationship with her second husband, Stephen Townsend and the problems these caused her socially.
The day was filled with talks by some of the world’s experts on FBH and her books and was full of the most marvellous insights. Ann Thwaite had met members of the family as well as former servants when researching for her book, including a man in his 80s, Harry Millam, who was a 12 year old stable boy at Maytham. I as
Yay for day 14 of the Golden Coffee Cup. Whew, two weeks, what achievement! It's like climbing a mountain, and, finally, finally the summit is in view. It's a great feeling. Enjoy it.
No clue what a Golden Coffee Cup is? Click here.
Today's high five is a classic from Francis Hodgson Burnett.
Francis was a early super-star author beginning in 1868. She was an orphan at age 18, supporting two siblings with her story sales. Her life was fraught with much heartache, including two divorces and the early death of her oldest son. She received no royalties for her first book because of faulty international copyright laws, yet in the midst of the chaotic turmoil of her life she wrote a slew of wonderful books, and notably to me: A LITTLE PRINCESS and THE SECRET GARDEN.
I loved these books as a teen. Yes, as a teen -- I struggled with reading as a child. I read Francis's books over and over again. I remember reading THE SECRET GARDEN the first time, getting to the last page, closing it, and then opening it again, and reading it from cover to cover to again. Let's create those works that will set a fire for story burning in someone else. Remember how important your work is. Think of the generations of children you will influence.
I hope you play hard, work harder, and seize the day! Come back tomorrow for yet another cup of hot java. Hey, is anyone struggling? Don't give up. Revise your goals, cut them in half, go in a different direction, but do not throw in the towel.
A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy. ~Edward P. Morgan
Racketty-Packetty House and Other Stories Frances Hodgson Burnett
A lovely collection of short stories by one of my childhood favorites. (I have no idea how many times I've read
The Secret Garden. Interestingly,
The Secret Garden and
A Little Princess both fueled a strong interest in India and British Imperialism in general. I was a weird kid. But those books led to the interest which is currently manifested in my love of books exploring the current changing notions of what it is to be British, or British immigration in general...) Anyway.
These stories teach valuable moral lessons and smack of Imperialistic views and Victorian values and thoughts on class. If it was anyone but Burnett, I'd puke. But... for some reason, although they grate on me (intellectually) there's something about Burnett that makes me all warm and gooey inside, so I forgive her and enjoyed the stories as actual stories. If it hadn't been Burnett, I'd read the stories as an interesting historical relic--what we thought children needed to know, what thoughts about the world in general were, etc.
I will say though, the greatest part of this book is the inclusion of "Sara Crewe" which Burnett later expanded on and turned into her novel Little Princess.
Alright, this book, in some ways, doesn't need to be reviewed; it's a mainstay in a children's literature bookshelf. However, if you're like me, then you haven't read the book for years and have vague memories of the story mixed with images from film/t.v. of varying qualities. So, to do the book justice, I reread it.
A Little Princess is about a girl, Sara Crewe, who possesses a precocious intellect, a global worldview (having been raised in India), a vivid imagination and a very doting father (who lavishes luxuries upon her). Her father, the wealthy Captain Crewe, takes her from her happy home in India to a strict and cold boarding school in London under the tutelage of the aptly-named Miss Minchin. She spends several years there, befriending unlikely students and scullery maids, and garnering the growing resentment and jealousy of some other students as well as Miss Minchin herself. On her 11th birthday they receive word that her father has died and all of his money gone in a bad investment leaving her penniless. Miss Minchin now takes the opportunity to avenge her long-standing animosity to the child by making her one of the lowest and most poorly-treated servants in the house: depriving her of food, humiliating her in public and having her room in an attic with the rats. However, despite this ill-treatment, Sara maintains her pride and spirit and (as you likely know) ultimately triumphs.
In my head, I had remembered Sara as a sweet and cheerful protagonist, almost bubbly. Upon rereading the book, though, I saw that Sara is completely different- very thoughtful and quiet- even described as solemn. What keeps her spirit up isn't effervescence but equanimity. Her insistence on behaving as though she is a princess is very striking (not the princess/diva manner I would normally associate with the word) but rather a combination noblesse oblige and tranquil pride. Her few slips into discouragement and anger only highlight her general way of being rather than contradict it. I was quite inspired by this book and struck by Frances Hodgson Burnett's non-condescending manner of writing. If not for the slight classism in the book, it could easily have been written today. If you haven't read this book in a while, you should definitely revisit it- I guarantee the story will both pleasantly surprise you and might even move you.
I re-read THE SECRET GARDEN for the first time in many years, and I’m left with the question: Why on earth did I love this book so much? Because this time around, while its slightly charming, its also kind of boring. I don’t really like or care much about any of the characters. The way the dialect is written in a lot of the dialogue is, as Elizabeth points out, difficult to read, enough so that it jarred me out of the story. And the sort of moralistic-sarcastic omnicient narrator is kind of grating. It really was a favorite when I was a kid, and for most books that I loved growing up, even if I don’t have the same reaction now that I’m older, I see why I loved them then. This one, though, I can’t figure it out.
I know its a classic and a common favorite - can anyone discuss what they loved or still love about this book? I genuinely want to know, I’d like to reclaim my happy warm nostalgic feelings on it.
Posted in Burnett, Frances Hodgson, Friday "Why?"/Random Book Questions, Nostalgic affection or genuine book ardor?, Secret Garden, The
.jpg?picon=1806)
I THINK THE SAME THING ABOUT “LILY’S EYES.”
#8 to #15 is entirely too big a slip.
Ah well.
I adore “The Secret Garden”. It is my balm for wounded feelings and sore throats and everything in between. And I’m pretty sure Dickon was my first literary crush.
(Sharon– Dickon was my first, too, I think!)
I am reading this to my girls for the first time (technically the second time for my oldest girl – but since she was six months the first time around, I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count), and I love so much seeing their wonder and joy as the story unfolds around them. This is also the first year we have any sort of garden (just in containers, but still), and the connection between the two is wondering for them. And for me, to be honest. I still love Mary and Dickon (and resent Colin for his stupid insistence on turning the story ALL ABOUT HIM) deeply. Mary is one of those literary characters, along with Lucy Pevensie and Dorothy Gale and others, I expect to greet me with open hands in heaven and say “At last! Come have adventures with us!”
The ‘93 movie was beautiful–but the parents die in an earthquake & subsequent fire (which is what you see in the preview). I guess maybe that’s easier to depict than cholera?
Am I the only one who recognizes and has a visceral reaction to almost every Dell Yearling cover? They instantly bring me back to my childhood.
Yes, I definitely had Lily’s Eyes running through my head while reading Deathly Hallows. I love that musical greatly! Mary’s song “Hold On” is one of my all-time Broadway favorites.
I strongly prefer the covers that don’t pretty Mary up too much. The ethereal white dresses are just too much (especially the one where she’s by a stream and the dress’s edge is dipping into the water).
Oh, and I am a fan of the 1993 movie. Worth a watch. Everyone is killed off by an earthquake at the beginning (that is probably where the fire is) rather than by cholera – I suppose it was thought to be more dramatic. But I forgave the beginning (which was at least atmospheric – Mary hides under her bed while the room shakes) for all the rest, especially Maggie Smith as Mrs. Medlock.
Martha’s song, “Hold On,” is a highlight of the musical. I’m not a huge fan of the British cast recording, but its “House Upon a Hill” is quite good–much darker than the Broadway recording.
Some of these covers absolutely horrified me, especially the one featuring a pretty Mary in a fifties-style red dress and hairstyle, entering what look like the set of a bad school play. Also the one which shows Mary looking like she is in her mid-twenties. Both of them absolutely ruin the mood of the book. Mary in white doesn’t bother me — it mentions that they bought her clothes like that in the book to replace her black ones — but I agree that they shouldn’t be diaphenous, or not what a child by the moor in that era would wear.
Just as Alice is not fully Alice without the Tenniel pictures, The Secret Garden needs Tasha Tudor. Thank goodness the version I had (and still have) is the green Yearling one shown above.