The Garden of Eve

Almost a year after her mom dies, Eve's dad hauls her off to a blighted little village, where he tries to bring a blighted apple orchard back to life. Eve feels abandoned by her father's focus on the orchard, but luckily she meets a boy named Alex who is apparently a ghost - he becomes a sort of

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friend. A mysterious seed adds another element of magical realism; it takes her and Alex to an alternate village, as richly alive as the real village is barren. The magical elements don't mesh with the plot very well; they felt awkward and almost unnecessary. The down-to-earth folks in the story are much more interesting and engaging. Well-written and smooth-flowing, but it would have worked better as straight fiction, not fantasy.

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Yes, Adam and Eve are characters, magical seeds may be from the actual Garden of Eden, and a barrier between Gan Eden and world we live in is vital to our world's well-being, but I don't think the Biblical connections go much further. There is a confusing mix of fantasy and reality: just as we

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start to believe that the story is not realistic, we discover that it may be and while we're absorbing this, suddenly there is a magical seed that produces a tree, which is a portal to another world. Apparently there is also some sort of conservation of living things: the abundant life in this other world is at the expense of the dying orchard and barren land in this world. The point of all this is learning to live with the loss of a family member, which is perhaps better done realistically. I'm all for using fantasy to create a sense of distance that the reader can lessen to whatever degree feels safe, but I don't think the fantasy does that in this case. Wow, I guess I'm more disappointed than I realized. Other than the above, I enjoyed reading the book; it kept my interest and I cared about the characters.

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What a beautiful unsung hero in the YA genre it has everything a ghost story, coming of age, dealing with grief and some fairytale/fantasy/magical realism elements thrown in.
11 year-old Evie doesn’t believe in magic anymore not since her mother died. After all if magic were real her mother would

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still be alive. But when Evie moves to Beaumont, NY where her father has bought a withered apple orchard that the townspeople whisper is cursed, she learns about a lost girl, receives a mysterious seed, and meets a boy who claims to be dead. Before long Evie finds herself in the middle of a fairy tale. And this one is real.
I really enjoyed this book it’s beautifully written and is a very believable work of magical realism. I pretty much read this book straight through and can see why it won the Michael Printz Honor. This book is beautiful and haunting and I would say a must read!
4 Stars

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After her mother's death, eleven-year-old Eve is angry at her father for moving them far to a small town in upstate New York as he looks for a new beginning for them both. Eve meets a boy she believes is a ghost and together they discover the magic that could save the town and their own families.

Cute story, but very deep. I think this will really require the kid to pay attention to what it is they are reading- more so than usual. Eve is a gullable young girl who finds herself in a predicament after believing someone she shouldn't even though she knows better. It has the elements of a ghost

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story but also of fantasy.

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This book is a journey through grief, hope, and healing. 11 year-old Evie desperately misses her mom, who passed away 10 months before. She moves with her father to home in an old apple orchard in upstate New York that is said to be cursed. Evie receives a mysterious present of an old seed, and

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when she plants it, she is whisked to an Edenic parallel world where the dead may be brought back. This was an interesting story with twists and surprises. Probably not my favorite of my recent children's/YA book (this one is appropriate for ages 11-14), but a moving story with lots of Biblical symbolism.

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This was a young adult book dealing with grief. The magical elements were interesting and I loved the ties to the Garden of Eden. The under-rated character in the book, in my opinion, was Maggie. I would have loved to see more done with her character. Eve was a likeable character who found strength

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in herself that she didn't know she had. Overall, a good book, but a slow start. Not sure my kiddos would stick with it to the end.

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I was really looking forward to this book because I enjoyed Gabriel King so much. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed by it as much as I don’t think it’s really finished. It has that have-to-fulfill-the-contract feel to it. Some of the imagery of the trees is fantastic, but the magic didn’t

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really work for me. It’s not enough to have a simple, yet cryptic, prophecy to make me accept strange coincidences.

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After her mother's death from cancer, Evie and her father move to Beaumont, New York to start a new life. Evie misses her mother and the stories she used to tell. Her father doesn't believe in magic or stories and focuses on the hard work that it will take to bring back the local orchard, but

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everyone says that it is cursed and nothing will grow there. Soon Evie meets a boy in the cemetery next to their house who says that he is dead, and the name that he gives her backs up his story, but there are no such things as ghosts - at least that is what her father says. On Evie's birthday, a local woman gives her a seed that is supposed to be special, but will it revive the orchard or is the source of the curse?

The Garden of Eve is full of magic, but very little of it is explained. Parts of the story contradict each other as reality and illusion seem to be in direct conflict. The characters are not very well developed and the plot lacks information to make it believable. Many of the hooks from early in the book never get the payoff at the end that would make this story more interesting. However, the power of love and believing in each other are dynamic messages at the center of this story. Overall, The Garden of Eve is a unique book with strong themes.

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