The Night Gardener

by Jonathan Auxier

Overview

Striving Readers

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781432863951
Publisher:	Gale, A Cengage Company
Publication date:	03/13/2019
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	458
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jonathan Auxier is the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, The Night Gardener, Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard, and Sweep. He lives with his family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

**STARRED REVIEW**
"Lots of creepiness, memorable characters, a worthy message, Auxier’s atmospheric drawings and touches of humor amid the horror make this cautionary tale one readers will not soon forget."

— Kirkus Reviews

**STARRED REVIEW**
"Storytelling and the secret desires of the heart wind together in this atmospheric novel that doubles as a ghost tale."

— School Library Journal

"Auxier achieves an ideal mix of adventure and horror, offering all of it in elegant, atmospheric language that forces the reader to slow down a bit and revel in both the high-quality plot and the storytelling itself."

— Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

"All proper scary stories require a spooky, menacing atmosphere, and Auxier (Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes) delivers the goods with his precise descriptions of the gothic setting and teasing hints of mystery and suspense."

— The Horn Book

From the Publisher

★ 2014-02-12
Replete with engaging figurative language and literary allusions to works ranging from the Bible to Paradise Lost, Auxier's creepy Victorian ghost story is an allegory on greed and the power of stories. Fourteen-year-old Molly and her younger brother, Kip, orphans fleeing the Irish famine, seek work in England. The destitute siblings become servants at the Windsor estate, at the center of which is a decrepit house entwined with a huge and sinister tree. Although warned that this place contains something ominous that changes people, they are unprepared for the evil they encounter. The master, mistress and their two children grow pale and thin; their eyes and hair blacken. Entering the forbidden room at the top of the stairs, Molly finds a knothole in the tree—a knothole that produces whatever one wishes for (money, jewels, sweets). The price is a piece of the petitioner's soul. Muddy footprints and dead leaves in the house attest to an evil nocturnal visitor, the titular Night Gardener, who wipes the sweat of fear from their nightmare-ridden brows to water the tree. In a heart-stopping climax, Molly and Kip attempt to stop this specter and the ancient curse. Lots of creepiness, memorable characters, a worthy message, Arrasmith's atmospheric drawings and touches of humor amid the horror make this cautionary tale one readers will not soon forget. (Fantasy. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews