The Secret Garden on 81st Street: A Modern Graphic Retelling of The Secret Garden

by Ivy Noelle Weir, Amber Padilla (Illustrator)

Overview

The Secret Garden with a twist: in this follow-up to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, this full-color graphic novel moves Mary Lennox to a New York City brownstone, where she and her very first group of friends restore an abandoned rooftop garden...and her uncle's heart.

Mary Lennox is a loner living in Silicon Valley. With her parents always working, video game and tech become her main source of entertainment and "friends." When her parents pass away in a tragic accident, she moves to New York City to live with her uncle who she barely knows, and to her surprise, keeps a gadget free home. Looking for comfort in this strange, new reality, Mary discovers an abandoned rooftop garden and an even bigger secret...her cousin who suffers from anxiety. With the help of her new friends, Colin and Dickon, Mary works to restore the garden to its former glory while also learning to grieve, build real friendships, and grow.

This title will be simultaneously available in paperback.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316459709
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	10/19/2021
Series:	Classic Graphic Remix , #2
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	98,267
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Ivy Noelle Weir is a writer of comics and prose. She is the co-creator of the Dwayne McDuffie Award-winning graphic novel Archival Quality (Oni Press), and her writing has appeared in anthologies such as Princeless: Girls Rock (Action Lab Entertainment) and Dead Beats (A Wave Blue World). She lives in the greater Boston area with her husband and their two tiny, weird dogs.

Amber Padilla is a cartoonist and illustrator, just starting out. Her previous professional history was in interactive and user experience design. She is currently enrolled in the MFA in Comics program at the esteemed art and design school, California College of the Arts. She received her undergraduate degree at Otis College of Art and Design. When she moved from LA to the Bay Area, she worked for a few short months for Slide Inc, which was later acquired by Google. For one year, in an autonomous unit within Google, she helped to design mobile social apps. She then continued to work at Google as a UX Designer for YouTube. She lent her design skills to products for the YouTube TV app, mobile app, YouTube ads and various desktop app projects. She is currently working on personal projects and a master's thesis in her studio space at the Firehouse Art Collective in the Gilman District of Berkeley. She resides in Oakland with her husband and two cats.

Editorial Reviews

2021-07-28
In this graphic novel reboot of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic, Mary Lennox’s Uncle Craven lives in a present-day New York City town house; Mary’s parents worked in the Silicon Valley tech industry before their untimely deaths.

Mary soon meets her uncle’s prickly housekeeper and her gregarious babysitter, Martha, and she becomes fast friends with Martha’s younger brother, Dickon. Mary gets to know the city, exploring its iconic cultural institutions and food scene and befriending the local bodega owner and his cat. Mary learns from Martha that her uncle’s standoffishness stems from the devastating death of his husband, Masahiro, but she senses that her new home holds other secrets as well after hearing unexplained noises during the night. Martha also mentions the beautiful rooftop garden that Masahiro cultivated—and Mary is determined to find it. Accessing the garden and finding Colin, an ailing cousin who suffers from panic disorder, living upstairs, Mary teams up with Dickon to nurture both. Mary and Dickon are kind and supportive, and Colin’s therapist provides professional guidance. As the garden grows, so do the opportunities for friendship and healing in a story that modernizes this timeless storyline. The simple panel layout and clear, colorful illustrations with easy-to-read speech bubbles make the plot easy even for young readers less familiar with graphic novels to follow. Most characters are brown skinned; the housekeeper, Martha, and Dickon read as White.

Empathy and self-discovery fuel this updated classic. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

09/01/2021

Gr 4–7—After the sudden death of her parents, Mary Lennox leaves her lonely life in Silicon Valley for a fresh start at her uncle Archie Craven's apartment in New York City. Initially standoffish, Mary blossoms while exploring the city and forging friendships with neighbor Martha, friendly bodega owner Ben, and bodega cat Robin. After discovering the missing key to a rooftop garden, Mary seeks help from Dickon, Martha's brother, to transform the neglected space. Keeping their work on the garden secret is paramount, especially after Mary uncovers the reason behind the mysterious third-floor noises: her previously unknown cousin Colin, who believes something is wrong with his heart and stays inside out of fear of a heart attack, though doctors have diagnosed him with anxiety. Restoring the rooftop garden to its former glory will require Mary and Colin to band together and dig into their grief. This graphic novel retelling of The Secret Garden hits the essential plot points of the original but offers more inclusive representation, with LGBTQ characters, people of color, and those dealing with mental health issues. Mary, Colin, and Uncle Archie all struggle to overcome loss. Colin's anxiety and panic disorder are handled sensitively thanks to the presence of a therapist and informative character discussions. The subdued colors and cartoony illustrations will pull in young readers. A love letter to New York, the story depicts well-known locations like Central Park. Mary, Colin, and Uncle Archie are brown-skinned; Martha and Dickon are white. VERDICT Readers will appreciate this ultimately hopeful story of loss and change. Hand especially to young readers seeking fictional works that deal with grief and anxiety.—Pearl Derlaga, York County P.L., VA

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