LCE 6th grade Electronic Book Review Form

1. Student Reviewer’s Name: Bliss S.
2. Date of review of book: February 24, 2008
3. Complete Book Title: The Secret Garden
4. Author of Book: Frances Hodgson Burnett
5. Year the book was published: 1993
6. Genre: fantasy
7. Student rating of the book (1 the highest, 5 the lowest): 1

8. Main conflict in the book: Mary Lennox has an uncaring mother, who always hands her off to a nanny. She is considered to be the most disagreeable child ever. When the cholera epidemic breaks nearly everyone dies, so she is sent to England from India to live with her rich uncle. A nice middle-aged woman who works at the house, named Martha, befriends Mary. That is a big deal for Mary, under the circumstances that everyone hates her. She finds an enclosed garden that she believes is magical. Along the way she meets some people, like Dickon, the boy she ends up falling in love with. Also, a sickly boy named Collin is befriended by Mary. In the end the magical garden somehow helps cure him. When she is there she overcomes her unbearably bad traits and becomes a good person.

9. Setting of the book: (place and time) This story took place in Yorkshire, England, in the early 1900’s.

10. Main Characters and part they play in the book:
(1)Mary Lennox is a disagreeable spoiled brat. She finds a secret garden that she believes is mystical. As the story progresses, she matures and changes into a better person. She is astonished to see that the garden helped with that.
(2)Martha is one of the workers at the house. She is the first person to bond with Mary. Unknowingly she prepares Mary for the psychological journey ahead of her by steering her in the right direction.

11. Are the characters believable and interesting? The descriptions of the characters were extremely vivid, making the vision in the reader’s head almost uncanny from the adjectives used. It was fascinating to see each individual character change, either mentally, like Mary or physically, like Collin. The characters were both believable and interesting.

12. One excellent direct quotation from the book: (include who said it, page number, and
quotation marks!) “By the time she was six, she was as tyrannical and selfish as a little pig.” (pg.4). This was an important statement, because it showed what people thought of Mary. No body said this in the story, but most people thought it, so it was just a sentence describing her. It was important for her to change that by the end of the story, and she did!

13. Good reasons to read the book: This novel was a type of fantasy that anybody can imagine themselves in, but in different ways. That makes it a fantastic story to read. It was truly well written; because it is so independent it let each person see it in their own way.

14. Any reasons not to read the book? It is difficult to come up with bad things to say about The Secret Garden. All that can be said is that it went on and on. Also, if fantasy isn’t your favorite genre then I recommend another book.

15. Did you like this book or not? And why…. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest stories I have read. One thing I disliked was that is was rather long, not that that is bad, but it went on and on. Though it had some flaws, overall… I love this book; it was wonderful and exponentially appealing!