Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jill Muller, Carole Boyd, E. L. Konigsburg, Concetta Doti Ryan - The Secret Garden: The Young Collector's Illustrated Classics/Ages 8-12

Pros: This book is ageless, its story is captivating, its author is marvelous.

Cons: I wouldn't mention one even if I could find one - and I can't.

The Bottom Line: This is a book for young and old alike. Even Hollywood cannot capture the beauty of this author's work.

Review: I didn’t hesitate a second when I heard about “The Memories are Dear” WriteOff! Only one book came to my mind and it came immediately. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodson Burnett was such an integral part of my childhood reading...

Pros: captures the joy of springtime and the transformation of neglected children

Cons: the ending seemed abrupt, didn't end with Mary

The Bottom Line: Read it to your beginning readers or secret away to indulge your child-like wonder to read this treasure.

Review: No, I’m not referring to people with the name Robin, but to the little, red-breasted, chirpy birds that you adore listening to you in the springtime of mornings. In a little over a page of this classic children’s book from 1911 by Frances Hodgson...

Pros: I wonderful story about love and happiness.

Cons: may be a little hard for young readers.

The Bottom Line: A wonderful story of magic, love, and happiness.

Review: One of my fondest memories of elementary school was having this book read by the teacher. I was in third grade and all the children would gather on the floor around her while she read from this book about how love can grow, even from a young lady who...

Pros: An uplifting, timeless story

Cons: none

Review: The power of kindness, love and believing in oneself are the seeds planted in Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. This beautiful story was first published in 1911, and has enjoyed acclaim in book, play and movie formats, and tells...

Pros: surface shivers, deep love of Nature

Cons: warped my little mind; I still read gothics!

Review: This is a review of the original book, and not of any later edition.

My first Gothic novel, original pagan sourcebook, and first favorite book that I can recall was the one my mother read to me when I had the measles at the age of six....

Pros: A lengthy book - I like that !

Cons: None

Review: I was 9 years old when I read this book and I`ve read it again and again over the years. It is about a little girl who has to live with her uncle due to the death of her parents. In the beginning she is a disagreeable child and finds pleasure in...

Pros: Brilliant, new ground, incisive, savage, visionary, symbolic, definitive, poetic, searching souls

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: This book changes the game, and your world view will change if you allow the magic to work. "Le Carre" has done well. Bravissimo!

Review: "Le Carre" has created another masterwork, quite different from his other works in that its focus is on a vicious torture-murder whose tracing opens to our view all the rank corruption behind the international aid community. The setting chiefly is, in...

Pros: good book for older children.

Cons: They made me read this in grade 6, not that I didn't want to, but still, I had no choice.

Review: For as long as I can remember the Secret Garden was a book worth reading. I was only 7 years old the first time I attempted to read this classic, and 16 when I purchased the book to enjoy for years to come.

The story is one of a young girl, of...