Having not read The Secret Garden since I was in my early teens, I’d forgotten quite how much the book focuses on my favourite thing: character development. Mary begins the novel as a demanding, antisocial brat who has no idea how to make herself, or anyone else, happy. Not only that, but the narrative likes to explicitly point out how much she’s changing. The Secret Garden, like What Katy Did and Pollyanna, is one of those books that makes me want to be a better person. 

And yet, despite the fact that my mum was an extremely keen gardener, I have no desire to go out and get myself ‘a bit of earth’ — even if such a thing were possible, living in London. And Colin’s belief in 'the Magic [of positive thinking]’ comes across a little too much like The Secret with its law of attraction and vision boards. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, Frances Hodgson Burnett presumably wanted to write a compelling story, and not a self-help guide, so the fact that there’s little concrete advice to take away from The Secret Garden shouldn’t be a mark against it. 

One detail I really enjoyed on this reread was the character of Susan Sowerby — I’d forgotten that Dickon was Martha’s brother, and that their mother was featured at all. She’s a fabulous maternal figure, and I particularly liked that even Mrs Medlock had respect for her. 

The Secret Garden would be a really good book to read in the spring. Even in summer, however, I did grow my very first blue rose in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so clearly the Magic does work, at least a little bit.