The Secret Garden

Since its publication in 1911, The Secret Garden, a touchstone of children’s literature, has been adapted for plays and movies over a dozen times. Charming generations of readers, the story centers around the healing power of friendship, and the magic in the everyday. Burnett begins with a spoiled and unsympathetic heroine named Mary Lennox. When Mary is orphaned, she is shipped from her home in colonial India to a drab country house in Yorkshire. As she learns to tend the garden on the estate, Mary forms her first true friendships; when they bring a secret garden back to life, Mary and her friends are also transformed.