Skip to main content

The Night Gardener

By
The Night Gardener
by Jonathan Auxier
Amulet Books, 2014.  350 pgs.  Fantasy

     On a "March-morning-that-felt-like-October" two red-headed Irish children, a girl named Molly and a boy named Kip, are making their way towards the Sourwoods with a "borrowed" horse and wagon.  The children have been hired to work for the Windsor family who have just moved in to a wretched and frightening old house in the middle of the very wretched and frightening woods. The house and grounds are dominated by an enormous tree which seems to be cared for by a mysterious figure in black--the night gardener--who leaves muddy bootprints in the house and seems to be stealing something from the sleeping figures within. The Night Gardener is the story of two brave and resourceful children who have only Kip's crutch named Courage left from their parents, and who must figure out a way to save themselves and the Windsor family from the tree and its caretaker, who will give you anything you want, but will also take everything you have.  Give this fine story to fifth or sixth graders who like atmospheric, literary ghost stories.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

By
If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.
Post a Comment
Read more

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

By loo
Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more