The Secret Garden and The Forgotten Garden – August CC Book Club Selection

Parent Cafe
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<p>I just thought I’d bump this up for those who missed it the first time around. Discussion doesn’t begin until August 1st, so there is still plenty of reading time for anyone who is interested in joining us!</p>

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<p>I finished The Secret Garden yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Surely, surely I’d read it once upon a time, but I got caught up in the story regardless. I plan to locate and watch the movie also.</p>

<p>I probably won’t start The Forgotten Garden for a couple weeks or so but look forward to it. </p>

<p>See you on August 1 for the discussion.</p>

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<p>Just finished Forgotten Garden - can’t wait to begin the discussion! Now I have to find my copy of The Secret Garden. I think I last read it 20 years ago.</p>

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<p>Firefly- your post makes me excited to start the Forgotten Garden! Tx</p>

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<p>I loved The Secret Garden as a child, and read it numerous times. If fact, I loved it so much, that I appear to have given my daughter a copy when she was two (based on the inscription). I know I read it aloud to her when she was younger, but I hope I waited a bit longer than that! I’m looking forward to reading The Forgotten Garden and next month’s discussion.</p>

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<p>Just finished FG and really enjoyed it, easy to read and I enjoyed one particular parallel to the SG. Looking forward to hearing every one else’s thoughts</p>

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<p>I have finished both books: The Secret Garden was a pleasantly familiar classic and The Forgotten Garden was an unexpected delight. To those who haven’t started yet, don’t be daunted by the length of FG–I couldn’t believe how fast the pages flew by. I’m looking forward to hearing everyone’s opinion on August 1st!</p>

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<p>Haven’t started The Forgotten Garden, hoping my “delayed gratification” allows me to actually remember details about the book, when the discussion starts.</p>

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<p>Finished The Forgotten Garden shortly after midnight - and I only started it on Tuesday. I know the discussion starts tomorrow but find myself curious about maps and Kindles/Nooks. </p>

<p>I often glanced back at the map of the Blackhurst Estate (1913) as I read. The map really clarified/enhanced the setting for me. When the author wrote of the maze/walled garden/Cliff Cottage, the map helped pull me “onto” Blackhurst Estate with the characters. I used the visual (map) more in this book than I have other times/other books.</p>

<p>Anyway, if you’re reading a book on a Kindle/Nook/etc, can you glance back and forth at a map as you read? (Yes, I still read the old fashioned way - dragging a book around with me.)</p>

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<p>Yes - it’s quite easy to look at a black-and-white single-page map on Kindle. Usually the first page with the map have been formatted by the publisher to be accessible via the table of contents (not sure if it was done with The Forgotten Garden, I am reading a physical book from the library this time), but if that wasn’t done - then the reader can simply place a bookmark there and access it quickly, then press ‘back’ to return to the page s/he was reading priorly.</p>

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<p>PS - I still have a few dozen pages of the denouement to Forgotten Garden left to read this afternoon. Talk to you all tomorrow! :)</p>

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<p>I just finished!! Loved it! </p>

<p>I never saw the map on my kindle until I saw the earlier comments from newccuser and ignatius. I started at the first chapter and missed the map. It was pretty small on the kindle and I found it difficult to focus in on it. Enlarging the type didn’t enlarge the map. Is there anything else I can do to make it larger?</p>

<p>I look forward to tomorrow’s discussion.</p>

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<p>Took a break from reading this on Kindle, and noticed the posts about the map. It is so small on Kindle, so I just checked Amazon site, and it’s bigger on the Check inside the book- link [Amazon.com:</a> The Forgotten Garden (9780330449601): Kate Morton: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Garden-Kate-Morton/dp/0330449605]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Garden-Kate-Morton/dp/0330449605)</p>

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<p>The map is actually pretty small in my trade paperback as well.</p>

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<p>Just found the zoom feature on the link above- via Amazon, look inside the book, keep scrolling down until you get to the map.
Unfortunately, I’m not even into the part of the book where the map is needed…</p>

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<p>I love my Kindle, but I read The Forgotten Garden in paperback form because I was irked (like Singersmom07) with the high cost of the kindle book. I am so glad I did! Never was there a book that required more “thumbing” backwards and forwards, and that can’t be done efficiently on the Kindle. (At least that’s how it was for me: I needed to browse back and forth to check details, look for earlier clues to the mystery and keep the timelines straight.)</p>

<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, you’d better stay away from the discussion until you’ve finished the book, if you want the story’s secrets to unfold slowly. I have a feeling there will be spoilers galore on this thread very soon. </p>

<p>I’ll post the opening discussion questions shortly.</p>

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<p>Will do Mary13, …so, let the rumpus begin …</p>

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<p>Welcome to August and to our discussion of The Secret Garden and The Forgotten Garden! Here are some questions to mull:

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<p>To get the ball rolling, I am going to start with what I think is the easiest question from either set:</p>

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<p>Absolutely. Unfortunately, they never knew how right it was. If Hugh and Lil had known that they had saved Nell from the clutches of Uncle Linus and Aunt Adeline, they would have been spared years of lingering guilt.</p>

<p>The character of Uncle Linus is one of many ways in which The Forgotten Garden turns The Secret Garden on its head. Like Archibald Craven, Linus Mountrachet is wealthy, lonely, physically handicapped, and father to an invalid child in whom he has little interest. But whereas Archibald turns out to be a good man capable of love, Linus reveals himself to be a very, very creepy fellow. Is he a pedophile? Or just obsessed to an incestuous degree with his sister? In either case, not even the most beautiful garden can rescue him.</p>

<p>So with hindsight, we see it was a blessing for Nell to have been raised by Hugh and Lil. I think the mistake that her adoptive parents made was to have kept it a secret for so many years. Or at the very least, once having told Nell the news, Hugh should have insisted that they share it with the rest of the family. “A burden shared is a burden halved,” as they say.</p>

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<p>I agree that, once the past is known, we realize that Nell was much better off staying with Hugh and Lil. I was angry with Hugh when he first threw away the letter that asked if anyone had found Nell/Ivory. I didn’t think that was his choice to make, but it ended up being the right choice.</p>

<p>Linus was very creepy. I even wrote “creepy” in my notes. I was so relieved that he never did anything to Eliza. I really feared that the pedophile theme was going to enter the story.</p>

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<p>I hadn’t really thought much of the plaits until I read this question. I do see significance. A plait weaves in and out, back and forth, and comes back together at the end. That sounds a lot like the lives of the characters in the story. Also, Eliza cut her plait when she lost Sammy. She was alone. It’s interesting that she didn’t throw her plait away; she saved it with her mother’s brooch and the trinket that Sammy found in the street. It was Eliza’s way of keeping her family together. The hairs in the brooch were also plaited. Georgiana told Eliza the brooch was a mourning brooch that

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