reading (The Secret Garden)

I finished "The Secret Garden" over the weekend. It was the first time I've read the book. I was surprised how many moral lessons were stuffed into the book. Some of them were a bit heavy handed at times, but I think many of them were well played and multi-layered. I was pleased to see how much depth some of the lessons have, weaving into different aspects of the plot. The approach to race and class prejudice had bold bits and subtler coloring.

Of course, the main plot is pretty hard to miss. It gets a bit to heavy on the treacle at times, even for me, a sucker for a certain amount of treacle. I think the dip into the head of the robin was completely unnecessary and distracting. I also think the end could have been handled better by continuing to follow the viewpoint of the children. However, all said, for a book with so many lessons, it approaches many of them sideways and might slip under kids' radar. Yes, parts are too easy and perfect, but that's what you get in an extended fairytale.

I image the word use will introduce new items and concepts for most kids, although the use of certain words becomes repetitive to the point of mantra. Maybe that was intentional, but after finishing the book I am curious to look up curious in the thesaurus and see what other curious words lurk on the page. I'm a curious creature after all.

2. Frances Hodgson Burnet "The Secret Garden"