Brian has been telling me to read this for years; it was one of his favorite childhood books. I enjoyed it but I think I would have liked it more as a kid - it’s definitely from a slower-paced era of children’s lit.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1695975...

I can't quite believe that I managed to reach the age of nearly 44 without having read this brilliant children's fantasy, though I had fond if vague memories of Dorothea Brooking's 1974 BBC adaptation. Tom, sent to stay with his aunt and uncle after his brother develops measles, discovers that when the clock in the hall strikes thirteen in the middle of the night he is able to visit the garden as it was in the past, and makes friends with Hattie who lives in that past time, though they argue about which of them is a ghost. For the adult reader the story is actually Hattie's, Tom being the not completely reliable viewpoint character, and the ending, which I remembered as cutely satisfying when I watched it on TV aged seven, carries a stupendous emotional punch now that I am old enough to really appreciate it. A fantastic book; read it with your children, or borrow someone else's to read it with.

Quite enjoyable! Never heard of it before but came up while searching for clean/safe books to play for an 8,6,4 year olds. They loved it!

I fell in love with The Secret Garden when I was in kindergarten, but I always wished it had actual magic (and that the story stuck with Mary and didn't wind up about Colin and his dad). Tom's Midnight Garden is my wish come true. There are a lot of similarities with The Secret Garden: a lonely child discovers a secret garden and befriends another lonely child (who, like Mary, is an orphan). There's a gruff yet kindly gardener and a forbidding aunt instead of an uncle. There's magic and mystery, but there are no fairies or fauns here. It's a grounded sort of magic, wrapped up in the mysteries of dreams and time.

I was touched by the gentle growing-up message of Tom's Midnight Garden. In children's books, characters are never allowed to stay in fairyland. They grow up and eventually lose the ability to see the magic: Susan and her lipstick and nylons, Sarah not hearing the sleigh bells, Wendy having a child and not going back to Neverland. Often this comes off as harsh, as if puberty is a failing that children (especially girls, apparently) go through. Pearce's book addresses growing up and the steps kids inevitably take away from fantasy, while also reminding us that adults can come back to that magic and hold their childhood memories of magic close in their hearts. It doesn't take a hard line where an interest in "real" friends and romance means you must turn away from all that's fantastic. You can have both, even if at times you may emphasize one more than the other.

There's also a current of nostalgia for a less built-up, industrialized, polluted, drained, and de-magicked England. We experience the Fens as they were in the late 1800s, already drained of course but still with unspoiled rivers and diverse wildlife, a place where people could ice skate from town to town in winter and boat and bathe in summer. We see a large English garden with yews to climb, apples to pick, wrens to watch nesting, and the meadows beyond with the cows and geese. We also see these places in the late 1950s, after the land has been sold, pavement has taken over, and factories are polluting the river. It's not heavy-handed--our characters see this, but don't express sadness or regret. It's just part of the passage of time.

This is such a beautiful and moving book, but it's not twee or precious. It avoids that through the main characters' personalities. Tom and Hatty act like real kids, not idealized ones. Published in 1958, I think it could still hold the attention of middle grade readers (and adults who love classic kids lit) today. I read it in two sittings, and of course I teared up at the end. If you enjoyed this book, I'd also recommend The Children of Green Knowe by LM Boston.