The Night Garden
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
From Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author Polly Horvath is this magical middle-grade novel about a garden that grants wishes. It is World War II, and Franny and her parents, Sina and Old Tom, enjoy a quiet life on a farm on Vancouver Island. Franny writes, Sina sculpts, and Old Tom tends to their many gardens—including the ancient, mysterious night garden. Their peaceful life is interrupted when their neighbor, Crying Alice, begs Sina to watch her children while she goes to visit her husband at the military base because she suspects he’s up to no good. Soon after the children move in, letters arrive from their father that suggest he's about to do something to change their lives; and appearances from a stubborn young cook, UFOs, hermits, and ghosts only make life stranger. Can the forbidden night garden that supposedly grants everyone one wish help them all out of trouble? And if so, at what cost? The Night Garden is a poignant and hilarious story from acclaimed children's author Polly Horvath.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The witty voice of 12-year-old Franny drives this historical adventure, set during WWII in the coastal town of Sooke in British Columbia. Adopted through a "series of mistakes," aspiring writer Franny lives with a sculptor named Sina and her husband, Old Tom, in a grand, rambling house with extensive gardens (including the off-limits "night garden," which possesses magical properties) until the war intrudes on their peace. When a dramatically weepy neighbor, nicknamed Crying Alice, needs someone to care for her children, Sina takes in the energetic Winifred, Wilfred, and Zebediah, then adds a supremely untalented and grubby neighbor, Gladys, as a cook. Amid the chaos of the household, Sina sees UFOs, a hermit makes himself useful, a mystery involving Crying Alice's husband and a spy plane emerges, and the night garden reveals its powers of wish fulfillment. While the narrative sometimes gets lost in complicated plot turns, the quirky characters and Franny's dry-humored narration stand out as Horvath invokes classic literary elements of orphans, secret gardens, and found families. Ages 9 12.
