Reading Circle - The Night Garden / MASTER

by Polly Horvath

Hardcover, 2017

Status

Available

Call number

FIC HOR master

Call number

FIC HOR master

Description

Twelve-year-old Franny Whitekraft lives quietly with her adopted parents on a farm on Vancouver Island until the spring of 1945 when the three Madden children move in, UFOs and ghosts appear, an important military airplane disappears, and wishes made in Old Tom's forbidden night garden will hopefully get everyone out of trouble.

Publication

Puffin Canada (2017), 304 pages

Original publication date

2017-09-12

Language

User reviews

LibraryThing member davidpwhelan
"The Night Garden" is the least visited and most mysterious garden on the land on which Franny's family lives. It plays a key role after three children come to stay at the farm and a mystery arises that may be a key to a calamity facing their father.

The writing is solid and uses a rich vocabulary.
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The story was harder for me to get into. It reminded me a bit of a weak version of Anne of Green Gables crossed with a weak version of Lemony Snicket. On the one hand, the vocabulary and some of the philosophical bits seem aimed for an older reader. But the implausibility of the plot seems aimed at younger readers who can overlook the holes in this literal flight of fancy.

I would love to have seen Franny developed more, without the need for a mystery beyond the garden itself, whose own backstory is quite interesting. Parallel arcs, like the incorporation of technology into rural life, ended up feeling like a distraction by the story's end.

The story has a dash of magic and of mystery. But I'm not sure I'd call the book either, which could make it a hard recommendation for a young reader except to say that it's unusual. My guess is that it's aimed at 4th or 5th grade up to 7th or 8th grade, but it's mishmash approach may make it too challenging at the younger end and not be developed enough at the older end.
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LibraryThing member meandmybooks
Not awful, but not as enjoyable as some of Horvath's previous books. The implausible dialogue is amusing for a while, but soon the arch, precocious narrator's oh-so-clever conversation becomes wearing. There are some sympathetic characters, but the Madden family, who provide the main action are
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made so excessively irritating that I was unable to summon the slightest concern for their plight. Eventually a series of stupid decisions by various characters snowballs into an absurd climax. More appealing are the interactions among the narrator's little family of quirky introverts and their eccentric neighbors, especially the bebopping Gladys and the sequined-underwear sporting Miss Macy, and even the narrator's artistic aspirations and efforts at profundities come across as sweet. The Victorian house, with its rambling gardens and grounds, touched with wisps of magic and teaming with hermits, Brownies, and poker playing soldiers offers great promise, so it is particularly disappointing that the action provided by the idiotic “Fixing Bob” and his woeful wife, “Crying Alice,“is so unsatisfying and the resolution is so predictable. The various strands here -- war, artistic growth, family loyalties, UFOs, ghosts, and so on – never really form an interesting whole, and I only finished because I was in a reading in a comfortable deck chair and it's not a long book. Two stars might be a little harsh, but I wanted to indicate that this is really not one of her better efforts.
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LibraryThing member CurrerBell
The whole story, but especially the ending, is just too contrived, but I love the first-person narrative voice of the girl Franny.
LibraryThing member bucketofrhymes
I received a free copy of The Night Garden through LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review — thank you!

What a compelling, darkly-funny little book, filled with rich and over-the-top characters. I have been seeing a lot of comparisons to Lemony Snicket, which I completely get — with the
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added benefit that this is an original enough book that you don’t feel like you’re reading someone who’s just hopping on the bandwagon.

Definitely recommended if you like dark stories, larger-than-life people, and a flair for the dramatic.
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LibraryThing member JLSlipak
It is World War II, and Franny and her parents, Sina and Old Tom, enjoy a quiet life on a farm on Vancouver Island. Franny writes, Sina sculpts, and Old Tom tends to their many gardens–including the ancient, mysterious night garden. Their peaceful life is interrupted when their neighbor, Crying
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Alice, begs Sina to watch her children while she goes to visit her husband at the military base because she suspects he’s up to no good. Soon after the children move in, letters arrive from their father that suggest he’s about to do something to change their lives; and appearances from a stubborn young cook, UFOs, hermits, and ghosts only make life stranger. Can the forbidden night garden that supposedly grants everyone one wish help them all out of trouble? And if so, at what cost?

BOOK REVIEW:

What a ride! I found this book exhilarating and the characters rich and wholesome. The author’s voice is reminiscent of Harper Lee’s in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The use of language significant to the World War II era was an excellent touch. I felt like I was right there with Franny, the storyteller, seeing everything and hearing everything she was. Love the cover! It’s an easy read for middle grade right up to adults! I enjoyed it and know that other adults would too.
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LibraryThing member StephLamb
The Night Garden by Polly Horvath is a charming middle grade novel set in 1945. This story is a little bit historical fiction and a little bit fantasy.
Set on Vancouver Island during the time when the world was at war with the Nazis and Japan. The narrator, Franny, tells us the story of the Maddens:
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Flying Bob, Crying Alice, Wilfred, Winnifred, and Zebediah. It's also in part the story of Thomasina and Old Tom and their beautiful home and abundant gardens. When the Madden children come to live with Thomasina and Old Tom for a spell, their quiet life turns upside down. UFO sightings, paranormal activity, a secret, and a locked garden only a few can enter all feature in this incredibly descriptive story. As soon as you open the book you will inhabit Franny. Horvath keeps the language simple but incredibly descriptive and evocative of the 1940s and war time. With a fascinating supporting cast of characters and a touch of magic, you are never quite sure where the story is taking you at any given moment keeping it interesting and attention grabbing.
The Night Garden is a great middle grade read for any of your readers who enjoy stories infused with a little magic.
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LibraryThing member Bitter_Grace
I love love love Polly Horvath's dry humour and quirky characters. Her books are always a joy to read, regardless of the storyline. Also reminiscent of her other books, The Night Garden is grounded in realism but incorporates fairytale-like elements. Although set during WW2, the story is
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lighthearted and comical, taking place largely on a Canadian farm that attracts stray children and other misfit characters, who each have a role to play in the unfurling of the plot about a missing military plane and a mysterious garden. Some will find the story far-fetched, but I enjoyed the sense of whimsy and adventure--a celebration of finding magic in the mundane.
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LibraryThing member kpolhuis
The Night Garden is, essentially, a tall tale (Canadian style). We have a historical setting (World War Two), lots of characters who all add that sense of surrealism to an otherwise unremarkable setting, and an epic tale of how the protagonist Franny comes to be here ( a sense of destiny or fate)
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with these people and at this time.
There is magic here and also mystery created by a forbidden garden. A cast of characters with original and interesting personalities (some of them close to the ridiculous) which made me think of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, also Daniel Wallace's Big Fish comes to mind. Both of which create magic in seemingly ordinary worlds.

All of it seems to be masterminded by some great god like Zeus in Olympus just stirring the pot to see what will happen next to Odysseus. It is a story about choices and the consequences of them... which makes for an epic tale.
The Night Garden is a nice introduction to magical realism and the tall tale. I enjoyed it and I think that children will too. Wouldn't it be fun to try and see the magic in our own worlds?
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LibraryThing member bookwren
Quirky, very quirky, especially the ending with the odd father. I loved Franny, Sina and Old Tom, but wished the family they helped wasn't quite so odd. Also loved the setting in East Sooke, which I've visited.
LibraryThing member Jayner
This was a really good read. It was well written and a bit funny.
The setting of the story is a lot like Anne of Green Gables. It is about an orphan girl who end up living with an interesting couple. She lives a quiet, uneventful life. She unsuccessfully tries to write stories, until one day
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'crying Alice' comes crying to her house. After that everything is changed, and the secret of a locked garden is found out.
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LibraryThing member SandyAMcPherson
East Sooke Farm and its landscape was evocative of an earlier, simpler time. Into this pastoral scene, we find something magical, narrated by Franny, who is drawn to the gardens. A special ‘night garden’ grants wishes, an intriguing theme that added delicious mystery. The backstories which
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demonstrated wise use of the one wish allowed a person, were a clever opening for some philosophical thoughts on what trouble an inappropriate wish can cause.
But for me, this charming storyline was muddied with implausible actions by some quite weird supporting characters that did not engage me at all, particularly the Madden family. Into this bucolic setting we have an airplane maintenance mechanic in the military acting out in a exceptionally unrealistic manner and a disingenuous portrayal of other personalities which appears intentionally deceptive: Supposedly, elderly and dithery, Miss Macy morphs into a woman who can throw off her clothes, leap into a very dangerous tide rip to rescue someone from cold sea.
Written to captivate a 'middle grade' audience, the mystery and intrigue aspect was counteracted by mismatches which occur throughout the narrative: young Franny’s vocabulary was sophisticated beyond her years, the turn of words often too clever. At times boredom with the story could easily set in with run-on sentences and irrelevant, unexplained situations such as Sina’s trips into the village to listen to the radio for alien messages. These mystifying interludes do not move the story along.

Polly Horvath is a new author for me so I don't know whether this book is reflective of her usual writing style or is a departure. In this example of her writing, there were real gems to be had with flashes of very clever narration, except the novel felt like it needed a rewrite.
[I received this book from Penguin Canada through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for an unbiased review].
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LibraryThing member KarenAJeff
I really enjoyed this book. It is a bit meandering but then everything falls together. I did wonder about the ease with which the other children integrated into the family, especially the relationship between Franny and Winnifred, but it isn't too far fetched. I guess they were both looking for a
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friend. I loved Old Tom and Sina and their relationship, and there are always different kinds of people in rural communities/small towns.
Bottom line - I would recommend for pre-teens, young teens.
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LibraryThing member 19anne44
I really enjoyed this book and as a result I've resolved to read more children's books! There were so many quirky characters that it's difficult to decide which one I like best. Franny, the narrator, was adopted by Old Tom and Sina as a baby and they live together on a farm in a small community on
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Vancouver Island in British Columbia during WW2. The father (nicknamed Fixing Bob) of the neighbour children is away working as a mechanic in Comox on a top secret plane. When his wife (nicknamed Crying Alice) insists that something is wrong with him she leaves her 3 children with Old Tom, Sina and Franny. Zebediah, the youngest child, is receiving mysterious letters from his father which he refuses to share with his siblings, much to their annoyance. UFOs and ghosts make an appearance and then there is the secret garden which no-one is allowed to enter except the hermit who was rescued from the sea by a mermaid (or so he thought). I had heard of Polly Horvath but had not read any of her books before but really enjoyed her style and especially her sense of humour.
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LibraryThing member Carolibrarian
I would recommend this book if you like Anne of Green Gables.

A great story about an orphan who goes to live with quirky couple that have their own beliefs about the world around them. Throw in some ghosts, UFOs and set it during the war and you have a perfect Canadian read

Thank you librarything for
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letting me read this one.
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LibraryThing member SheilaCornelisse
Franny is adopted through a series of unpleasant mysterious coincidences by Sina and Old Tom, an eccentric couple living in a large house surrounded by gardens. The adventure begins when a neighbour leaves her three children in the care of Sina and Old Tom. Crying Alice must find her husband to
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stop him from doing something foolish. The storyline is full of local and loco characters - a hermit with amnesia, an overzealous Brownie Troop leader, and a scatterbrained hormonal teenage girl. Of course sibling rivalry plays a part as the youngest of the three children, Zebediah, is secretly corresponding with his father. Throughout the story, Old Tom has one main role... Never to go into the Night Garden. But we all know that rules are meant to be broken when curious children are involved. This would be a great story for middle schoolers and young teens. There is some suggested promiscuity.
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LibraryThing member leahdawn
Franny is used to a quiet life with Sina and Old Tom, until the day Crying Alice drops her three children at her house in order to go confront her husband Fixing Bob, who she fears might do something seriously stupid. As Franny and her new friends attempt to unravel Fixing Bob's mysterious
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behavior, they discover interesting tidbits about everyone's past, and the magic that seems to exist in the old farm that they call home.
There's lost of interesting magical realism in this book, and it's never quite clear which aspects are "true" and which might be just in the imagination of a child. But little is lost in this. The characters are whimsical and well-written, and overall the book is an interesting read.
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LibraryThing member Sugar_Diva
I want to really love this book. Maybe it's just me and my tastes, because everyone is different but this fell flat for me. The characters are interesting enough that it kept me reading but the story line was so muddled and scattered that had it not been for the children I probably would have DNF'd
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it. They had such diverse personalities and were very well written I just wish the story would have followed suit. I also wanted the garden to be featured more. Being that the book is titled "The Night Garden" I expected the garden to be something wonderful and be the center of attention..sadly it was not.
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ISBN

0143198645 / 9780143198642

Barcode

09780143198642
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