Children’s book review: The Secret Garden Illustrated Gift Edition

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This week’s children’s book review is all about The Secret Garden, the Illustrated Gift Edition retold by Geraldine McCaughrean. It was published by Nosy Crow and can be purchased on Amazon.

A favourite bedtime classic, beautifully retold by bestselling and award-winning author, Geraldine McCaughrean

This beloved childhood classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett is now available in a sumptuous gift book edition with dazzling new art.

When Mary Lennox is sent from India to live with her uncle at gloomy Misselthwaite Manor, she is the most spoiled and contrary child you could ever meet. But she is also extremely lonely. Until one day, she discovers a walled garden that has been kept secret for years. With the help of a little robin, Mary unearths the key and unlocks the wonder that lies beyond the garden walls – and finds that making friends can be every bit life-changing as a magical garden. 

A captivating picture book retelling for young children by acclaimed author Geraldine McCaughrean, who has won, among many others, the Carnegie Medal twice, the Whitbread Children’s Book Award and the Smarties Bronze Award.

Growing up, The Secret Garden was one of my favourite stories and one I couldn’t wait to share with Erin. This particular edition of the story, the Illustrated Gift Edition is absolutely stunning. Starting with the cover, showing Mary Lennox in the garden filled with beautiful plants and colours, this is definitely a copy I would have picked up on a shelf in a shop. This is one that definitely needs to be faced to the front so people can see just how beautiful it is.

The book, retold by Geraldine McCaughrean, follows Mary Lennox as she is forced to move back to England and live with her uncle in the Yorkshire moors! Throughout the book there are full page illustrations mixed while some pages have a mixture of words and images. The illustrations throughout are really beautiful and you get a feeling for the scene especially in places such as the moors and the discovery of the garden.

The Secret Garden is such a magical book, no matter what version you have, but I think this one is just that bit extra special and one we’ll be reading for a long time to come.

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