The Secret Garden

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow.” -Frances Hodgson Burnett

It was in The Secret Garden that we learned that we can make beautiful spaces that are all our own. And the garden was the place where dreams came true, where life waited to bloom, and where old things became new. We found Misselthwaite Manor and the Yorkshire Moors deliciously mysterious, and we will never forget finding the key and the hidden door for the first time.

We watched Mary Lennox blossom, and we discovered with her that we each have a purpose and can love and be loved. We had a secret crush on kind-hearted Dicken and agreed that Colin Craven needed to quit crying and get on with it. Our hearts thrilled when reconciliation and healing came into a broken family. And when we saw the flowers bloom, we knew that all would be well.

I’ve read this book more times than any other single book. This copy is held together with tape. It came in the mail one day from my grandmother with this written inside: “Welcome to the sweetest, most mysterious place anyone could imagine.”