Philippa Pearce (1920–2006)

Tom is staying with his aunt and uncle while his brother is in bed with the measles. At first he dreads it because their apartment - one of several in an old house - has no garden to play in, but he discovers that the grandfather clock in the downstairs hall chimes to its own version of time and opens the back door onto a garden of the past. He wanders that magic garden every night and there meets and befriends Hatty. Time in the garden passes differently, and Tom discovers that the magic show more won't last forever.
Opening a door to another, magical land is right up there on my list of excellent plot devices, and I *loved* this book when I read it a few years ago, and wish that I'd discovered it as a kid. The twist at the end is very satisfying, too. Charlie wasn't quite as enchanted with it as I am, but he still enjoyed it (or at least he humored me by saying so). show less

Sent to stay with his Uncle Allan and Aunt Gwen when his brother has the measles, Tom Long is bitterly disappointed and unhappy at the prospect of a dismal holiday spent at their flat, which takes up one floor of an old Victorian house. Lying awake late at night, he is puzzled when he hears the grandfather clock in the lobby striking thirteen, and going downstairs to investigate, he slips out of the house and into a mysterious garden that was not there during the daytime. As it transpires, show more Tom has slipped into the past, into the Victorian age, when the house was still a great mansion. Here, in this midnight garden, he meets and befriends Hatty, an orphaned girl come to stay in the house, and one of the only people in the past who can see him. They have many wonderful times together in the garden, but all things must come to an end, and one night Tom finds that he can no longer enter the midnight garden - he can no longer travel to the past. In despair, he thinks that he has lost Hatty. But has he...?

A haunting and brilliant tale, Tom's Midnight Garden is a book I first encountered as a young girl, reading it, loving it, and then, despite its story staying with me through the years, forgetting its title. I can remember many times, thinking of that odd, enchanted story I used to love about the boy, the grandfather clock that struck thirteen, and the nighttime garden. This was before computers were ubiquitous, and I wasn't sure how to track it down. I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to ask a children's librarian, but in any case, I happened across it by accident one day, in my early twenties, snapped it up, and reread it. It was like coming home. Originally published in 1958, Tom's Midnight Garden won the Carnegie Medal that year, and it is not difficult to see why. It is an almost perfect book, addressing the pain of childhood, the joy and difficulty of friendship, and the nature of time and of dreaming in perceptive, sensitive ways. The conclusion, in which Tom discovers that old Mrs. Bartholomew, who is his aunt and uncle's landlady, is actually Hatty, grown old, and that it is her dreams of her own youth that have allowed him to travel to the past, always sends a shiver down my spine. They say the past is always with us, and I think that this is because we carry it with us - in our memories, and in our dreams. Philippa Pearce has chosen a unique way of exploring that idea, and she has done it brilliantly! Beautifully conceived, beautifully told, and beautifully written - this is a true classic, and is one I enjoy rereading from time to time, since rediscovering it. show less

Amy is positive that she wants to spend three days and nights at her grandmother's house, even though she has never been away from home before. Thinking ahead, she packs her three favorite things to take with her. Each day, Amy enjoys her time with Grandma, whether they go to the park or bake a cake. But when nighttime comes, homesickness strikes, and she must use her favorite things - a bedroom mat, a wooden toy horse, and a little wooden boat - to make herself feel better. In each case, show more the beloved object transforms, transporting her to her house and allowing her to see that her mother, little brother, and pet dog are all well. When she cannot find her family, on the third night, Amy is distraught, until she learns that they have come to Grandma's early! The story concludes at the fair the next day, as Amy rides the merry-go-round, and realizes that her loved ones, even when out of sight, are always there for her...

A heartwarming and imaginative tale, one which highlights the importance of our connection to our family, and the role that make-believe can play, in offering comfort to frightened young children, Amy's Three Best Things is exactly what I would imagine a reassurance story from Philippa Pearce would look like! I have fond memories of reading Pearce's award-winning children's novel, Tom's Midnight Garden, as a youngster, and have always found her stories immensely well-constructed and emotionally resonant. This was no different, and I thought that the final passage of the book - "Around and around went the merry-go-round with Amy on her dragon, and sometimes she saw her family and sometimes she didn't. But they were always there" - offered the perfect conclusion to the tale. The accompanying watercolor artwork by Helen Craig, perhaps best known for illustrating the Angelina Ballerina books, is just lovely, capturing the emotional register of each scene, as well as the sense of magic and adventure in Amy's nighttime journeys. Recommended to anyone looking for picture-book reassurance stories about spending the night away from home, with the proviso that parents be aware that this one is a little text-heavy for a picture-book, and perhaps best suited for children four or five and up. show less

Phillipa Pearce, a British author best known for her 1958 Carnegie Medal-winning children's novel, Tom's Midnight Garden, here adapts the classic French fairy-tale of Beauty and the Beast, offering a simplification of Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont's version that is approximately one half the length (according to the author's own afterword) of the original. Her narrative covers all the major elements, and is engagingly well-told, although a little text-heavy for a picture-book. Unfortunately, show more the accompanying gouache artwork by Alan Barrett is drearily uninspiring: blurry, monochromatic, and unappealing.

This definitely won't be going on any "favorite fairy-tale adaptations" list, which is a shame, since the text is moderately engaging. I understand that it has been reprinted, with artwork by James Mayhew - perhaps that edition is more appealing? In any case, despite my disappointment in the book (I was terribly excited when I discovered that the author of Tom's Midnight Garden, which I adored as a girl, had written a version of Beauty and the Beast), I did appreciate the author's extended afterword about her sources. Mention is made of the version written by Mme. de Villeneuve, as well as that penned by Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont, and a lingering question I had, about whether Straparola had written the original Beauty and the Beast (no, he didn't, although he wrote a similar tale about a pig prince) was answered. Onward with my Beauty and the Beast project! show less