Award Winner: The Night Gardener

                                                                             Carrie

Photo Credit: www.amazon.com

                Molly and her younger brother Kip are alone in the world after their parents were lost at sea in a quest for a better life. To survive, they find themselves servants to the Windsor family in a creepy old home. The woods surrounding them are said to be haunted, and for this reason, the house becomes an isolated place. Before long, dark dreams overtake the children and the family they serve. With no sleep to be had, Molly, Kip and the Windsor family lose all pallor in their skin and become sickly. Molly also notices footprints and leaves on the floor each morning, and decides to investigate. Staying up late with her brother, she spies a mysterious Night Gardener who comes into the home at night, terrifies the residents of the house, then uses their sweat to water a great tree in the yard. Around that time, Molly enters a locked room in the residence and finds the same tree is growing into it. The tree welcomes her with a letter in her mother’s handwriting, telling her to stay put. Molly wants badly to believe that her parents survived, and desperately longs to hear from them again. As so, despite her better judgement, she stays at the residence. As with all the members of the Windsor family, the tree grants your heart’s greatest desire to bind you to it, all the while making you weaker. Once Molly and her brother are pursued by the Night Gardener, and find graves dug in their yard, it becomes clear that they must flee the residence, and insist that the Windsors come with them. After a tense showdown with the Night Gardener, they are able to defeat the Night Gardener and destroy the cursed tree. The Windsors are each able to regain their former strength and courage in the process, and therefore redeem themselves for mistakes made throughout the book.

                The Victorian setting and language used in this book add to the storytelling, but also make it somewhat inaccessible for younger middle schoolers. Words like “sourwoods” (Auxier p.4) and “hurdy-gurdy” (Auxier p. 6) are unfamiliar to these students. Additionally, Molly and Kip, who are uneducated, speak in a dialect that is likely unfamiliar to younger readers. For example, Molly says, “And pray mum. What’s a storyteller doin’ all the way out here? On foot no less?” (Auxier, p. 7.) My son who just started middle school began reading this book, and told me that it was too difficult for him. After I read a few chapters aloud, however, he became familiar with the dialects and words, and was able to continue unaided. For those reasons, I would recommend this book for older middle school students.

Works Cited

Auxier, J. (2014.) The Night Gardender. New York, NY. Abrams.


Jonathan Auxier's Website

http://www.thescop.com/