Merry Misfits Book Club: February: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The theme for February was a book that was made into a movie or show.  That gave me lots of options obviously, but I wanted one that I had seen and liked the movie, but never read the book.  Since I really adored A Little Princess when I read it last year, I decided to go for The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett's other very famous work.  (I know she wrote more than just these but I believe these are her most famous/lastingly popular.)  I do like the 1993 film a lot, so I was curious to see how similar it was to the book.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book.  The story itself is lovely, but there's a lot of racism and classism (and even some misogyny) that aren't fun to read, even in an old book.  What I hated most of all, though, was the Yorkshire dialect that many characters (all the lower class ones...) speak in.  There were times when I had to reread sentences to understand what the characters had said.  I think about how some parents won't let their kids read silly books like Captain Underpants because there are misspellings... I don't see why being a classic makes that okay.  (Not that I'm saying kids shouldn't be allowed to read this, that should be up to each parent... I just find the double standard gross.)  I sound pretty down on the book and I don't mean to, because I did like it!  Like I said, the story is lovely... the setting is so picturesque, the plot is so slice of life, the characters are oddly endearing.  Even though I didn't like it as much as A Little Princess (as or much as the 1993 movie, if I'm honest) I did still like it.

My goodreads review is here.  Not too many in depth thoughts there, but like... follow me on goodreads lol, I post lots of legit reviews.

I read this book between February 2 and February 21.  I know that's a long time.  Not a reflection of the quality of the book so much as a reflection on the quality of my attention span and non-existent motivation.

Would I recommend this book?  If you, like me and a lot of other people around my age, grew up with and loved the movie, yes.  It's definitely worth a shot.  And if you like classic children's stories, it's probably a must read.

12 meses 12 libros: August: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

August's theme was a book older than 100 years old.  I read/have read a lot of classics, and I have even more on my massive list to eventually read, so the difficulty this month was in deciding on one, lol.  I ended up going with A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett because the story has been one of my favorites for some time (I adore the 1995 movie) and we had a gorgeous copy right there at our library branch.

 

I really enjoyed this book.  Sara is a very endearing character and the story is very engaging.  I was so familiar with the 1995 movie, which has a fair number of differences from the book, that I was very curious to see how similar the two are.  Aside from the ending I'd say that film is a pretty faithful adaptation, and the fact that it was different gave me the experience of not knowing how this would end, and not knowing how things would come to be where they needed to be.  It was exciting to see what fell into place!  I liked the book enough that I could easily see it becoming something I re-read regularly. 

I started this book on August 11th and finished on August 18th.  It's not crazy long, but I took my time (and took my birthday off reading because I was busy allllll day lol).

Bottom line, would I recommend this book?  Yes!  Very much so.  Especially if you're the kind of person who has ever fancied yourself a princess. 👑