The rating I gave this book reflected personal tastes, as well as how I felt about the writing, pace
The rating I gave this book reflected personal tastes, as well as how I felt about the writing, pace and plot. A lot of it reflects personal taste, and may not matter to the average reader for which this book was intended.Piper is sent away to her grandmother’s estate over the summer when her father becomes gravely ill. Also residing at the estate is the mother who abandoned Piper and her father when she was four, and several other children her mother is fostering. Each of these children have magical affinities, and have been given a task by Piper’s mother and grandmother, that revolves around a magical garden on the estate. Piper has to come to terms with a lot in this book, a sick father, absent mother (who apparently cares more for other children than her), magical powers and more. Piper is a strong, smart, but very human character, you really feel for her. For 95% of the book her mother, Sophia, when we see her is absolutely despicable. There is a very good reason for this, which becomes readily apparent about halfway through, but it still makes those portions of the book hard to read. The other children are all really unique characters. Though one thing that really bothered me was about belief. Piper had a lot of trouble accepting the magic, until she found it within herself. The moment she voiced she had powers, one of the children, who just a couple chapters ago demonstrated her own magic flat out thought Piper was lying about hers. That rung really hollow to me.There was a lot of borrowing from other stories and even movies in this book. The cat (very like Mrs. Norris), the black portal (or the cave on Dagobah). It made me feel as if not a lot of originality went into this book. It was all lifted from other places.The scenes in the garden with Teddy were really the highlight of the book for me. The relationship between Piper and Teddy was really interesting, and the magic in the garden was, if not original fun to read. Much of the pace was really slow, only the ending had some speed and life to it. It was predictable in many ways, and also heart wrenchingly sad. As I said, much of my nitpickiness might not bother the average middle grade reader, it was just my own personal preference and thoughts. -- source link
#garden#family