How many children does Susan Sowerby have?

She has twelve children, including Martha and Dickon. The cottage is crowded but cheerful.

What does Susan Sowerby do for Mary?

She sends her a skipping rope and sound advice about playing outside. Later she writes to Mr. Craven asking him to come home.

From The Secret Garden

Susan Sowerby

Loving moorland mother • Wise and comforting

Martha and Dickon’s wise, loving mother, whose kindness reaches all the way to the manor.

Who is Susan Sowerby?

Susan Sowerby is the mother of Martha and Dickon, a wise and loving woman who lives in a whitewashed cottage on the moor. She buys Mary a skipping rope, and when she visits the secret garden she hugs Mary and Colin with tears of wonder. Afterward, Susan writes a kind letter asking Mr. Craven to come home at once.

Susan Sowerby is a character in The Secret Garden, the 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, retold for ages 6–9 by Sean Lee.

What is Susan Sowerby like?

Wise
Loving
Warm

Susan Sowerby’s story

Susan Sowerby is the mother of Martha and Dickon, and she has twelve children in all. Her cottage on the moor is small, but it is full of cheer. Though she is poor, she raises her children with kindness, fresh air and plenty of porridge, and the book shows her as one of the wisest people in the story.

Mary never meets her at first, but Susan sends Mary a gift of a skipping rope through Martha, and Mary’s health starts to improve. Her plain, kind advice, that children need fresh air and other children, is passed on to Mr. Craven by Mrs. Medlock, her old school friend.

When she finally visits the secret garden, Susan hugs Mary and Colin with tears of wonder. Later she writes to Mr. Craven and asks him to come home. Her letter helps bring him back at exactly the right time.

“Well, Sarah Ann, she mayn’t be a good child, an’ she mayn’t be a pretty one, but she’s a child, an’ children needs children.”

Susan Sowerby, as repeated by Mrs. Medlock, about Mary. From the original 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

A moment to remember

Susan kneels on the grass in the secret garden and gathers Mary and Colin into one big, warm hug.

Martha Sowerby: her daughter
Dickon Sowerby: her son
Mary Lennox: the girl she sends a gift
Mrs. Medlock: her old school friend

Talk about it

Mrs. Sowerby wrote one kind letter that helped bring a family back together. Who could you write a kind note to this week?

Questions about Susan Sowerby

Who is Susan Sowerby?: She is the mother of Martha and Dickon, who lives in a cottage on the moor. Everyone in the book treats her as a sensible and caring woman.
How many children does Susan Sowerby have?: She has twelve children, including Martha and Dickon. The cottage is crowded but cheerful.
What does Susan Sowerby do for Mary?: She sends her a skipping rope and sound advice about playing outside. Later she writes to Mr. Craven asking him to come home.