The Secret Garden written by Frances BURNETT is a book about a spoilt and sick girl named Mary Lennox. She lives in India but when her parents die because of a cholera epidemic she moves to England to live with her uncle. After her arrival she starts to change little by little and meets all kinds of people like Martha who is a servant; Martha is hard but at the same time she takes care of Mary. Ben is the old gardener who is grumpy but will later help Mary to take care of the garden. Dickon -Martha's brother- is a nature lover and can even speak with a squirrel! And Colin - Mary's cousin who appears later in the story- is a child who has given up will to live, believing he is doomed to be a hunchback like his father.
All along the story, Mary discovers the garden of her aunt who died about ten years before. After the death of his wife, Mary's uncle had lost his smile and had decided to close the garden for ever. But Mary finds the keys with the help of a robin and she decides to take care of this garden again; she calls it “the secret garden”. She asks Dickon for help and they create a beautiful garden.
However, one day Mary hears a noise and goes to check what it is; she then sees a little boy: her cousin Colin. He is very thin that's why he cannot walk. They become friends but because Mary is too busy taking care of the garden she cannot be with him for a long time. So Colin has a fit but Mary scolds him and she decides to take him into the garden because she believes that Colin can walk, and in the end Colin can walk indeed! The uncle smiles again and Mary has a family and friends who love her.
MY IMPRESSIONS on the book:
I have chosen to present this book because I read it when I was younger and I found it very moving. I like it very much because it tells us that everybody can change even if you are like Mary. I also think at the time I was a little bit like Mary and I tried to change even if I don’t know if it really worked... After reading this book again I think life is like a garden we have to take care of if we don't want weeds to grow...
