What is The Secret Garden about?

It is about Mary Lennox, a lonely orphan who goes to live at a big house in Yorkshire. She finds a locked garden, brings it back to life with her new friend Dickon, and also helps her sick cousin Colin become well and happy.

How does The Secret Garden end?

Colin gets well and learns to walk and run in the garden. His father, Mr. Craven, comes home and finds him healthy, and the family is happy together at last. Mary has also changed from a spoiled, sour girl into a kind friend.

What is the moral of The Secret Garden?

The book teaches that kindness, friendship, fresh air and hopeful thinking can help people who feel lonely or unwell. It also shows that a person who seems unlikeable can change when she is cared for and has something to love.

What age is The Secret Garden appropriate for?

The original suits about ages 9 to 12 for independent reading, or younger children as a read-aloud. Our retelling is written for ages 6 to 9.

Who is the main character in The Secret Garden?

Mary Lennox, a ten-year-old girl who is sent from India to live in Yorkshire, is the main character. Other important characters are her cousin Colin Craven, Dickon, Martha, Ben Weatherstaff and her uncle, Mr. Craven.

How many chapters are in The Secret Garden?

The original book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, published in 1911, has 27 chapters.

The Secret Garden summary for kids

The Secret Garden follows Mary Lennox, a lonely, cross ten-year-old who is sent from India to live in a huge old house on the Yorkshire moors. There she meets a friendly robin, a cheerful maid, a boy who can charm animals, and a garden that has been locked up for ten years. As Mary brings the garden back to life, it slowly changes her too. Children still love this book because it is full of hidden doors, midnight cries and the thrill of a secret that belongs only to them.

Written by: Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911
Setting: Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire moors, England, in the early 1900s (with the opening in India)
The original novel: 27 chapters
Our retelling: Ages 6–9, an illustration on every page

The story, from beginning to end

Spoiler alert: this summary tells the whole story, including the ending.

A lonely girl comes to Yorkshire

Mary Lennox grows up in India, where servants do everything for her and her busy, pretty mother and her father pay her little attention. She becomes spoiled, sickly and bad-tempered, and nobody likes her. One day a terrible illness called cholera sweeps through the house. Mary’s parents and most of the servants die, and she is found alone and forgotten.

Mary is sent to England to live with her uncle, Mr. Archibald Craven, at Misselthwaite Manor. On the long journey the housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, tells her that the house is huge, the moor is wild, and her uncle is a sad man with a crooked back who will not want to be bothered with a child.

A strange, silent house

The manor has a hundred rooms, most of them locked. Mary is told to stay in her own room and play outside. At first she is as rude as ever, but the young housemaid, Martha Sowerby, is cheerful and honest and treats her like an ordinary child. Martha talks about her big, loving family in a cottage on the moor. She also tells Mary a secret: her uncle’s wife died ten years ago, and he locked the door to her beloved garden and buried the key.

Mary wanders the grounds and meets an old gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, who is as grumpy as she is. A friendly robin follows them about, and for the first time Mary feels she might like someone. At night she hears faint crying somewhere inside the house, but Mrs. Medlock says it is only the wind.

The key and the hidden door

Mary skips outside with a rope that Martha’s mother has sent her, and her cheeks begin to turn pink in the fresh moor air. One day the robin hops about on a patch of earth, and in the dirt Mary finds an old key. Soon after, a gust of wind lifts some ivy and shows her a door handle. The key fits. Mary slips inside and finds the secret garden, walled in and tangled, with rose branches that look grey and dead but might still be alive.

She begins to pull the weeds so the small green shoots can breathe. For the first time in her life she has something she wants to do for herself, and she tells nobody, not even Martha, about the place she has found.

Dickon and a garden that wakes up

Martha’s brother Dickon is twelve, with a wide smile and a gift for animals. Birds, rabbits, a squirrel and a fox cub all seem to trust him. He brings garden tools and seeds, and he understands the garden at once. He shows Mary that the grey wood is not dead but “wick,” the Yorkshire word for alive, and he promises to keep her secret.

Mary asks her uncle, who is just leaving on one of his long journeys, for “a bit of earth,” and he kindly says she may take whatever she likes. She and Dickon work all spring, and Mary grows stronger and hungrier as the crocuses, daffodils and green buds appear. Her thin face fills out, and she starts to laugh.

The crying in the night, and Colin

One stormy night Mary follows the crying down a corridor and finds a hidden bedroom. In it lies a pale boy, Colin Craven, her cousin and Mr. Craven’s son. Colin has been told all his life that he is delicate, that he will grow a crooked back like his father, and that he will not live to be a man. He spends his days in bed, screaming whenever he is upset, and the servants are afraid to cross him.

Mary is not afraid. She is cross right back at him, which surprises him so much that he stops to listen. She tells him about the moor, the robin and Dickon, and he begins to want to see them. Dickon visits his room with his animals, and Colin cannot help being charmed. Mary also learns how the garden’s mistress, Colin’s mother, died: a branch broke while she sat on it, and she fell.

Colin goes into the garden

The children decide to take Colin to the secret garden in his wheeled chair, with every gardener ordered to keep away. When Colin sees the garden coming into bloom, he is overcome with joy and declares that he will live forever. Ben Weatherstaff, peering over the wall on a ladder, is caught by Colin and ends up helping them.

The children start to talk of something they call Magic. Colin decides that if he thinks hopeful thoughts instead of frightened ones, he will grow well. He begins to stand, to walk, to exercise and to eat hungrily. Mrs. Sowerby, Martha and Dickon’s kind mother, sends food and gently keeps an eye on them all. They keep Colin’s recovery secret so they can surprise his father.

A father’s return

Far away, Mr. Craven has spent ten years travelling in sorrow. One day, in a beautiful valley, he dreams that his dead wife is calling to him from the garden, and he feels peaceful for the first time in years. He decides to go home.

When he reaches the manor, he hears laughing from the garden and sees a boy run out of the gate, straight into his arms. It is Colin, tall, strong and well. Colin takes his father’s hand and walks with him across the lawn. The household is astonished. The locked garden is open, the sad boy is sad no more, and Mary, who arrived as the most disagreeable child in England, has helped bring it all about.

Themes and big ideas

Nature heals: Fresh air, sunshine, digging in the soil and watching things grow slowly cure Mary’s bad temper and Colin’s weakness. The story shows that spending time outdoors can make both bodies and moods healthier.
Loneliness and friendship: Mary and Colin are both lonely children who have been neglected in different ways. Once they have friends such as Dickon and each other, they begin to change. Being cared for and sharing a purpose make them kinder and happier.
The power of thoughts: Colin’s belief that he will die makes him weaker, and his new belief that he will live helps him grow strong. The book suggests that hopeful thinking matters, though it also shows plenty of real exercise, good food and fresh air at work.
Growth and change: The garden goes from grey and neglected to full of flowers, and the children change just as the garden does. Mary starts out selfish and ends up thoughtful, which shows that people can change at any age.
Kindness and honest speaking: Martha, Dickon and Mrs. Sowerby are warm, plain-spoken people who treat children as real people. Their honesty, rather than fuss or pity, is what first reaches Mary and Colin.

Is The Secret Garden right for my child?

The Secret Garden is a gentle, hopeful story, but it opens with sad facts. Mary’s parents die of cholera in India and she is left alone, and Colin’s mother died ten years before the story and his father has grieved ever since. Colin also believes he will die young, and he has frightening tantrums. There is no violence and no romance. A few scenes, such as the crying in the night and the long locked corridors, are mildly spooky. The original also includes some old-fashioned attitudes and a lot of Yorkshire dialect, which can be hard to read aloud.

Our retelling for ages 6 to 9 keeps the full arc: the robin, the key, the garden, Dickon, Colin and the happy ending. It treats the deaths of Mary’s parents very gently and keeps the mood warm. The original is best for confident readers of about 9 to 12, or as a read-aloud from about age 7. Our retelling is written for ages 6 to 9.

Questions to talk about

Why do you think Mary is so cross and unfriendly at the start of the story?
What does the robin do to help Mary? Why do you think the book includes animals like him?
How would you feel if you found a secret door that nobody else knew about? What would you do?
What makes Dickon different from the other people at Misselthwaite? Why do the animals like him?
Why do you think Mary and Colin are good for each other?
Colin believed that he was sick and would not live. How did his thinking change, and what happened next?
How does the garden change from the beginning to the end? How do Mary and Colin change too?
If you had a secret garden, what would you grow in it, and who would you invite?

Questions about The Secret Garden

What is The Secret Garden about?: It is about Mary Lennox, a lonely orphan who goes to live at a big house in Yorkshire. She finds a locked garden, brings it back to life with her new friend Dickon, and also helps her sick cousin Colin become well and happy.
How does The Secret Garden end?: Colin gets well and learns to walk and run in the garden. His father, Mr. Craven, comes home and finds him healthy, and the family is happy together at last. Mary has also changed from a spoiled, sour girl into a kind friend.
What is the moral of The Secret Garden?: The book teaches that kindness, friendship, fresh air and hopeful thinking can help people who feel lonely or unwell. It also shows that a person who seems unlikeable can change when she is cared for and has something to love.
What age is The Secret Garden appropriate for?: The original suits about ages 9 to 12 for independent reading, or younger children as a read-aloud. Our retelling is written for ages 6 to 9.
Who is the main character in The Secret Garden?: Mary Lennox, a ten-year-old girl who is sent from India to live in Yorkshire, is the main character. Other important characters are her cousin Colin Craven, Dickon, Martha, Ben Weatherstaff and her uncle, Mr. Craven.
How many chapters are in The Secret Garden?: The original book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, published in 1911, has 27 chapters.