Have you ever watched a movie before you read the book it was based on? I really suggest you read the book, The Secret Garden, before you watch the movie. If you watch the movie first, it somewhat ruins the surprises for you and you would be waiting for something to happen that is 199 pages away.
At first, I had a very hard time starting The Secret Garden because I watched the movie before I read the book. In the beginning, I thought the book was very boring. Every time I tried to read The Secret Garden, I never got past the first six or seven pages. I know that you can't tell a book from its first six pages, but the first six pages completely bored me.
The last time our class went to the library, I picked up The Secret Garden and made myself promise not to put the book down. I am ever so glad that I made myself do that. If I hadn't done that, I would have missed out on a great book!
Every now and then it was hard to "read" what the characters were saying because a lot of the characters speak broad Yorkish. An example of broad Yorkish is "Tha'rt not nigh so yeller and tha'rt not nigh so scawny. Even tha' hair doesn't slamp down on tha' haed so flat." Luckily, the author tells you how to pronounce the really hard words - when I say "hard" I mean that you can't just sound out the word.
One thing really interesting is that the book was written in 1911. That's almost 100 years ago! And not only that, The Secret Garden is still wonderful to read. Maybe it's like some wines, the longer it's kept the better it tastes.
I would rate this book an extremely well earned 100! Just kidding. I rate The Secret Garden is a super 10.
Your post made me think of some of the conversations I've had recently with Katie about Huckleberry Finn. It made me think that if you're looking for a new book, you might want to try Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain. It's the precursor to Huckleberry Finn, and you may find that you really like it -- the same way you liked The Secret Garden.
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