Reading Radio

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett – Episode 31 The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialization in The American Magazine (November 1910 – August 1911). Set in England, it is one of Burnett’s most popular novels and seen as a classic of English children’s literature. The Secret Garden tells the story of Mary Lennox a sickly brat born to privilege as a British citizen in colonialized India and her transformation after her parents die in a plague.  Mary is sent to live with her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire Moors.  There she discovers that life is more than being waited on hand and foot as she begins to be changed by the Moor and the people she meets there, especially her equally bratty cousin Colin. Recommended Age: While the Secret Garden does not have much in the way of questionable content, Mary does have some very racist ideas about the natives of India and expresses them as a young lady would in 1911.  These topics