Throwback Thursday :: 1 :: The Secret Garden

I am going to start a weekly meme called, "Throwback Thursday," that's been floating around in the blogging world for a few years now. Different blogs do it differently. I'm going to do what Jenny at Take Me Away started in 2009 and post an old favorite each Thursday on my blog.

So for this first installment of Throwback Thursdays, I am going to share one of my childhood favorites, The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. I came across this beautiful cover on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and fell in with love it! It was designed by Jillian Tamaki for the Penguin Thread Project. Isn't it beautiful? I hope to actually purchase it when it comes out in the fall.


Here is a full cover image. I would love to see it in person and even though I know they would not let me, I would love to run my fingers over it to feel the different textures. Yes, I'm the kid the goes to the museum and wants to touch everything.

The Secret Garden was one of my favorite childhood books. I devoured books when I was in elementary school and this one was of my absolutely favorites. I loved the idea of having a special key to a secret place that only you knew about. When I pictured it in my mind, it was filled with beautiful, colorful flowers. The main character, Mary, doesn't just keep this garden all to herself, she shares it with her cousin who is ill in hopes that it will help to heal him, inside and out.


Here is a summary from Goodreads:

What secrets lie behind the doors at Misselthwaite Manor? Recently arrived at her uncle's estate, orphaned Mary Lennox is spoiled, sickly, and certain she won't enjoy living there. Then she discovers the arched doorway into an overgrown garden, shut up since the death of her aunt ten years earlier. Mary soon begins transforming it into a thing of beauty--unaware that she is changing too.

But Misselthwaite hides another secret, as Mary discovers one night. High in a dark room, away from the rest of the house, lies her young cousin, Colin, who believes he is an incurable invalid, destined to die young. His tantrums are so frightful, no one can reason with him. If only, Mary hopes, she can get Colin to love the secret garden as much as she does, its magic will work wonders on him.


What was one of your childhood favorites?

image courtesy of: Jillian Tamaki