Rating:  -
Do you remember those old textbooks they used to hand out in fourth grade English class back in the 1980s? How they'd contain a section or a snippet out of some of the great works of children's fiction in the hopes of whetting our elementary appetites and interests so that we'd seek out the books on our own? No? Well, I do. I remember reading one of these textbooks one day and coming across a section in which a boy lives in a house where the clock strikes thirteen one night. Then he stumbles onto a magnificent eerie garden that only appears at this time. For years I carried the images from this single slight little passage with me, not knowing where they came from. It was only when I became a children's librarian that I decided to rediscover my mystery book. It didn't take long either. "Tom's Midnight Garden" is a true literary classic. Combining a British love of gardens with a bit of ghostly hauntings, time travel, and magical hours that don't exist in the regular world, the book has remained a classic, even if it has slipped out of the public eye a jot.
Tom and Peter are uncommonly close brothers. For them, summer is the time when they can play endless games in their backyard for hours at a time. Imagine Tom's sorrow then when Peter comes down with the measles right at the beginning of the warm months AND Tom has been quarantined to his stuffy old aunt and uncle's home. The boy is, needless to say, less than delighted with this chain of events. His relatives occupy the second floor flat in an old building that is separated into apartments. To top it all off, Tom has insomnia every night and finds himself wandering the building. One night the grandfather clock on the first floor starts chiming an unheard of thirteen chimes. Drawn by this peculiar number, Tom goes to the first floor, opens the back door, and finds himself facing a beautiful gigantic garden and woodsy area. This is especially odd when you consider that during the day this place is a paved over alleyway replete with garbage cans and a high fence. At night, however, it transforms into a magnificent wonderland for Tom and the girl he meets there, Hatty. Hatty and Tom become inseparable, in spite of their mutual confusion over what exactly is going on. Only when Tom is threatened with having to leave his aunt and uncle's (and thereby the garden) does he discover the source of the magic and the modern-day tie that pulls him there.
Comparisons of this book to "The Children of Green Knowe" make perfect sense. As I read this title, it didn't take much urging to be reminded of that other great fantasy in which a boy makes friends with otherworldly children. "The Secret Garden" also pops into the brain, due to its eerie ghostlike wailings and magnificent hidden garden. "Tom's Midnight Garden" is a little more methodical and (dare I say?) modern than these other books, though. Though Tom and Hatty don't initially question why a garden mysteriously appears in his backyard every night, eventually Tom must solve the mystery with a little detective work of his own. It's to the author's credit that by the tale's end, everything has been explained in a believable way. Some fantasy authors are far too willing to show something spectacular and then explain it away with the lame excuse of "it's magic!". Philippa Pearce is no such hack. This is a well-thought through book that justifies its fantasy and still remains fun.
I can't help but wish that reissues of "Tom's Midnight Garden" might consider giving it a bit of an updated cover. The original illustrations by Susan Einzig are inoffensive enough, but wouldn't this book benefit from lush full-page color illustrations from someone like Tasha Tudor, Tony DiTerlizzi, or (as long as I'm indulging myself in pure fantasy) Dave McKean? Slap a post-1958 cover on this puppy (possibly showing Tom getting his head stuck midway through the shed door) and you've got yourself a book that kids would be dying to get their hands on. Instead, you've a title that savvy adult, parents, librarians, and schoolteachers will have to coyly promote. Once the right kind of kid discovers it, however, you'll have a dickens of a time prying it from their hands. A fantasy that deserves more attention.
Rating:  -
Tom's brother Peter is infectious, so Tom is sent to live with his uncle and aunt in their flat in America.Tom is very bored because of the lack of gardens and parks nearby, so he is extremely excited when the clock strikes thirteen and he finds himself in a beautiful and magical garden that he will never forget.Tom's midnight garden is for vivid readers who will understand the friendship betwwen a modern and old world.I highly reccomend it to anyone interested in reading fantasy novels that are not too long.This book will tell you the tale of a tragic garden, a family, with a strict and ill-tempered mother and the truth of true friendship.Read this book!
Rating: -
I loved this book as a kid. I'm glad I came across it recently. Forty years later, it still is a great book to read. Did you ever notice how many English children's classics are about intensely lonely children? That's Tom's situation at the beginning of this book, but it's not depressing. The fantasy is very interesting, and Tom is a believable and likeable kid. The ending is great, and not quite what you would expect.
Rating: -
I read this story for the first time a year ago--at the age of 38, at my niece's insistence--and enjoyed it a lot. I agree with the cheery reviews below, including the review that noted how Pearce handles the time-travel plot so deftly it doesn't jar or seem hokey.
I just wanted to add two comments: First, this is a really moving story about the way people change, and grow up and grow apart. As I read it, I found myself thinking sometimes of friends who've moved on, or of how, looking at old pictures some years ago, my parents said wistfully of us their grown-up children, "It was such a nice time, when you were kids, and then suddenly you were all grown up." Tom's Midnight Garden is about a boy who meets a lonely girl, becomes fast friends with her as they play the days away in the garden, but it doesn't stay that way. There are a lot of things like that.
The other thing is that the story, the dialogue, the writing, have a sort of mellow, craftsmanlike feel. In other words it reads like a, uh, "timeless classic", or maybe it's good in the same sort of way that a good Katherine Paterson story is good. I sure did't get the same impression when I read, say, Louis Sachar's Holes.
My niece would give Tom's Midnight Garden 5 stars too.
Rating: -
This book was recommended by Mortimer Adler in his book the Paideia Program (a book about educating children). I would say it is good for the 8-14 year old range. Of coure, I'm in my 30s and I loved it. I read it in 3 days.
This book is much better than the Harry Potter books (which I also just read). The author has put so much thought and emotion into this story.
As another reviewer mentioned the book "makes you sad in a good way". It is about friendship, loneliness, growing up, time travel, and family. I am still perplexed and mulling over some parts of this book.
I won't spoil the surprises by going over the plot. I recommend you read this to your children. If you do, you'll probably spend half the time discussing with them the nature of time and reality, what true friendship is, how wonderful nature is, and how mean some humans can be.
Does Harry Potter do this? Yes but in a much shallower, simpler way. This book makes you think and it doesn't let the magic (or whatever) get the hero out of a fix or solve the mystery. The magic creates the questions but never really answers them.
***This is NOT a book about wizards or witches. It is a book about a boy who has strange things happen to him that he cannot control and really cannot understand. So please don't buy this book thinking it is a wizard or boarding school book. I used Harry Potter as a comparison as it is a popular modern day children's book aimed at the same age range.***
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