The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is a must-read for children and adults, especially if you missed out on this while growing up. When Mary Lennox's parents pass away, she is sent to live in Misselthwaite Manor, her uncle's enormous house. Mary is considered a spoilt and ill-tempered child, but with the help of a gardener, a robin redbreast and two new friends, she discovers a garden full of magic and vigour that begins to transform her own personality in the most astonishing of ways.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett was an English playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden. Frances Eliza Hodgson was born in Cheetham, near Manchester, England. After her father died in 1852, the family eventually fell on straitened circumstances and in 1865 emigrated to the United States, settling near Knoxville, Tennessee. There, Frances began writing to help earn money for the family, publishing stories in magazines from the age of 19. In 1870 her mother died and in 1872 she married Swan Burnett, who became a medical doctor after which they lived in Paris for two years where their two sons were born before returning to the US to live in Washington D.C. There she began to write novels, the first of which, was published to good reviews. Little Lord Fauntleroy was published in 1886 and made her a popular writer of children's fiction, although her romantic adult novels written in the 1890s were also popular. She wrote and helped to produce stage versions of Little Lord Fauntleroy and A Little Princess.