The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
SIGHTS & SOUNDS: 
MORE ONLINE RESOURCES BELOW
ACTIVITY IDEAS from the LitWits experience:
We listened to the wind on the moor and a robin’s song and a broad Yorkshire accent, tasted tea and crumpets and marmalade, smelled moist earth, old gate keys and a real bird’s nest. We planted flowers and ivy topiaries, wrote a diary entry, made a thematic collage, learned about British colonialism in India, Queen Victoria, the bacteria that causes cholera, the theme of transformation, the author’s identification with the protagonist, and so much more!The LitWits enrichment guide is coming soon, complete with academic printables!
Workshop video coming soon!
ONLINE EDUCATIONAL/ENRICHMENT RESOURCES
About the Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Biographical information
Photo of Frances Hodgson Burnett
Another photo of the author
About the Book
Goodreads Review
Cover of old edition
Another cover
Title page illustration, vintage edition
Cover with art by Tasha Tudor
Trailer for the 1993 film
IMDB Listing for The Secret Garden
About the Setting & Story
Information about Yorkshire, England
Map of Yorkshire
Photo of Yorkshire, England
Photo of the “real” Misselthwaite Manor, Great Matham Hall in Kent
Article about the manor and garden that inspired the book
Photo of the garden wall at Great Maytham Hall in Kent
Information about the Victorian era, from BBC’s “Hands-on History” for kids
Information about the British Raj (British Rule of India) from the BBC
Image of Indian raj
Information about the British colonial era and its impact on India
Map of the British Indian empire, 1909
Information about Cholera from the CDC
British bird sounds audio guide
Photo of the adorable British robin
Information about the British robin
Information about and images of different kinds of roses
Photo of beautiful walled English garden
Photo of iron gate key against a wall with ivy
Photos of hundreds of English plants and wildflowers (by category and name)
Photo of modest Yorkshire vegetable garden
Photo of large British kitchen garden
Information about the British manor house
Great Maytham Hall, Kent (where the author lived for awhile and was inspired)
Wonderful blog about the food of The Secret Garden and a recipe for Lavender Lemon Shortbread
Recipe for The Secret Garden Buttermilk Cranberry Scones
Music
Soundtrack to the movie
Tony Award performance from the Broadway musical
Victorian Yorkshire Christmas music
Quotes
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
“You can lose a friend in springtime easier than any other season if you’re too curious.”
In the garden there was nothing which was not quite like themselves – nothing which did not understand the wonderfulness of what was happening to them – the immense, tender, terrible, heart-breaking beauty and solemnity of Eggs. If there had been one person in that garden who had not known through all his or her innermost being that if an Egg were taken away or hurt the whole world would whirl round and crash through space and come to an end… there could have been no happiness even in that golden springtime air.
“Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow”
As she came closer to him she noticed that there was a clean fresh scent of heather and grass and leaves about him, almost as if he were made of them. She liked it very much and when she looked into his funny face with the red cheeks and round blue eyes she forgot that she had felt shy.
“To speak robin to a robin is like speaking French to a Frenchman.”
And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.”
…she was stirring her slow blood and making herself stronger by fighting with the wind…
Beyond the Book
Dales Countryside Museum and National Park Centre
The Secret Garden, Kent, England
The Secret Garden Cookbook
Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life of the Author of the Secret Garden
