Allie Fields Spring 2012 Type 02 Bookcover Series
Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) Frances Eliza Hodgson was born on November 24, 1849 in Manchester England. She had two brothers and she was also the oldest of three girls. Her family suffered from severe financial problmes after the death of her father when she was just three. She loved writing short stories in old notebooks when she was little. In 1865 her family moved to Tennessee where they lived in a log cabin. She began submitting stories to women’s magazines and became a literary success. She married Dr. Swan Burnett in 1873, but it was not a happy marriage. They did have two sons Lionel and Vivian. Her younger son inspired her book “Little Lord Fauntleroy.” Lionel tragically died of influenz. She eventually divorced in 1898, but later married Stephen Townshend. In Long Island, New York she wrote “A Little Princess” and “The Secret Garden,” both of which were inspired by her own povery stricken childhood, and her love for gardening. She died on October 29, 1924.
Her Other Books: That Lass o’ Lowrie’s (1877) Lindsay’s Luck (1878) Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886) Sara Crewe or What Happened at Miss Minchin’s (1888) The Pretty Sister of José (1889) The One I Knew the Best of All: A Memory of the Mind of a Child (1893) A Lady of Quality (1896) In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim (1899) The Making of a Marchioness (1901) The Land of the Blue Flower (1904) A Little Princess: Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time (1905) Queen Silver-Bell (1906) The Shuttle (1907) Reprinted by Persephone Books The Secret Garden (1911) The Lost Prince (1915) The Head of the House of Coombe (1922)
The Secret Garden Synopsis Mary Lennox is a sickly, unsightly little girl with a foul temper. The story begins with her living in India with her parents. An cholera outbreak leaves Mary the only member of the Lennox family left alive. She is found by a group of soldiers and eventually is sent to live with her uncle Archibald Craven at Misselthwaite Manor. Her uncle is a miserable man after the death of his wife ten years before Mary arrives. Mary soon hears about a secret garden from Martha Sowerby, a maidservant. Her couriousity about the garden intensifies and she begins to become healthy and better tempered. Ben Weatherstaff is a kindly old gardener she becomes friendly with, and she also finds company with a robin redbreast who lives in the garden. Mrs. Medlock, who is the head of the servants at the manor, forbids Mary to seek out the source of cries she hears coming from one of the locked rooms. When the robin helps lead her to the key to the garden she becomes distracted from what she heard and begins tending the garden. Dicken, a boy from the moor, brings her tools and helps her garden. Finally Mary can’t ignore the distant cries anymore and finds Colin Craven, Master Craven’s invalid son, shut up in a bedchamber. It is believed Colin will become a hunchback and die an early death. Mary soon begins to become friends with the boy, but he often has tantrums. After one of these episodes Mary examines him, and finds no evidence he is forming a hunch. Dickon and Mary secretly decide to bring Colin to the garden. When Ben Weatherstaff finds them in the garden he upsets Colin, causing him to stand for the first time in his life. Colin’s health begins to improve rapidly and he wants to suprise his father with his progress. Mary, Colin, Dicken and Ben Weatherstaff spend the summer in the garden. Dickon’s mother is also allowed to enter, and she then sends a letter to Master Craven telling him he must return to see his son, but does not tell him why. Master Craven immediately returns and a dream featuring the voice of his late wife leads him to the garden. He then sees his healthy son, a miraculous recovery.
Feeling of the Book mysterious intriguing religious bashful emotional sentimental progressive nostalgic serious magical nationalistic deep-rooted in relationships
Quotes One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live... surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place “Where you tend a rose, my lad, A thistle cannot grow.” Mrs. Sowerby answered. “I never knowed [magic] by that name but what does the name matter? ...The same thing as set the seeds swelling and the sun shining made thee a well lad and it’s the Good Thing. It isn’t like us poor fools as think it matters if us is called out of our names. Th’ Big Good Thing doesn’t stop to worry... It goes on making worlds by the million—worlds like us. Never thee stop believing in the Big Good Thing and knowing the world’s full of it...The Magic listened when tha sung the Doxology. It would have listened to anything tha’d sung. It was the joy that mattered.”
Protagonist
Colin Craven, the other protagonist besides Mary, shows perhaps the most physical and mental change. His ability to walk at the end of the story represents so much more than just a physical transformation, but his mental attitute about life has beeen hcanged as well.
Why I Choose This Book
I choose this book for several reasons. First, this story was one of my favorites from my childhood. I loved the book, as well as the movie. The fact that this story is still appealing to me today, despite the fact that it can be found in the childrens’ section, is a testiment to the depth of the characters and the transformations they undergo. Doing research I have learned about Burnett’s fascination with Christian Scientists, and I think there can be much more analysis of this story as an adult than a child woudl possibly recognize.
A Little Princess Being the Whole Story of Sara Crewe Now Told for the First Time
Synopsis Sara Crewe is a very intelligent, polite, and creative young girl. Born to a wealthy soldier in India, Sara was brought all the way to London in Victorian-era England for a formal education and to escape the inevitable hardships of India such as disease. At the upscale boarding school, Sara is forced to tolerate the haughty, disdainful headmistress, Miss Minchin. It only gets worse for poor Sara Crewe when a distressing event unfolds to leave her impoverished and at the mercy of the jealous Miss Minchin. Sara undergoes numerous trials as she humbly allows herself to be subjected to servitude, but with the help of several dear friends (both seen and unseen), she remains as proud and unwavering and imaginative as ever, proving to all that anyone can be A Little Princess.
Feeling of the Book victorian dramatic eccentric elaborate suspenseful tragic emotional based on friendships wisdom-filled loving jealous unstable
Quotes “I don’t like it, papa,” she said. “But then I dare say soldiers - even brave ones - don’t really like going into battle.” “Whatever comes,” she said, “cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.”
Protagonist
Sara Crewe is an interesting character for several reasons. Her dramatic transformation from riches to rags provides a twist in a common plot. An intriguing part of her is also her relationship with her father. I have found in these books that family relationships are special and intense, and it leads me to wonder about the relationship of the author to her parents. I think the character growth of Sara from being forced to live a different life is another interesting aspect to analyze.
Why I Choose This Book
I also was interested in this book because of its link to my childhood. I wanted to do books all by the same author because I can picture them being packaged together in a special edition for adults who love these stories, or for children who are interested in reading the books as well.
The Lost Prince Synopsis This book is about Marco Loristan, his father, and his friend, a street urchin named The Rat. Marco’s father, Stefan, is a Samavian patriot working to overthrow the cruel dictatorship in the kingdom of Samavia. Marco and his father come to London where Marco strikes up a friendship with a crippled street urchin known as The Rat. The friendship occurs when Marco overhears The Rat shouting in military form. Marco discovers he had stumbled upon a strangely militia-like club known as the Squad. Stefan, realizing that two boys are less likely to be noticed, entrusts them with a secret mission to travel across Europe giving the secret sign: ‘The Lamp is lighted.’ Marco is to go as the Bearer of the sign while Rat goes as his Aide-de-Camp. This brings about a revolution which succeeds in overthrowing the old regime and re-establishing the rightful king. When Marco and The Rat return to London, Stefan has already left for Samavia. They wait there with his father’s faithful bodyguard, Lazarus, until Stefan calls. The book ends in a climactic scene as Marco realizes his father is the descendant of Ivor Fedorovitch and thus the rightful king of Samavia.
Feeling of the Book heroic intelligent journey-driven secretive lonely entrusting playful unnatural eccentric loving nationalistic loyal
Quotes “History is not a mere lesson in a school-book, but is a relation of the life stories of men and women who saw strange and splendid days, and sometimes suffered strange and terrible things.” “Out of the blackness of Disorder and its outpouring of human misery, there will arise the Order which is Peace. When man learns that he isone with the Thought which itself creates all beauty, all power, all splendor,a nd all repose, he will not fear that his brother can rob him of his heart’s desire. He will stand in the Light and draw to himself his own.”
Protagonist
I was most intrigued by the protagonist The Rat. I think he is a very complex and adult character for a childrens book. When we meet him his disability is clearly a difficult subject for him to deal with. His talk about his drunk father, and the intelligent conversations he has about Samavia. His importance later in the novel is intriguing sa well because at first I expected his character to not play as important a role, and just be another accquaintance Marco met in one of the cities he lived in. I think his realization that he can be imporant in a way he never imagined is especially heart-wrenching and lovely.
Why I Choose This Book
I choose this book because I wanted a story featuring a boy as the main character. I had not read this story previously, but I have been pleasantly suprised when reading it. The themes of loyalty to family and the honor the main character seeks without question is one I have not seen presented as well in other novels.
Style Reference Refrences for Type
Refrences for Image and Type
Tone Graphs Traditional
Futuristic
Contempoary
Vintage
Playful Serious Realistic
Thin
Children
Simple
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Bold
Adult
Ornate
Symbolic
Abstract
Pastel
Bright
Subtle
Heroic
Associated Word List courteous controlled distinction respectful inspiring dream-like joyful jubilant disastrous fundamental loyalty destitue eccentric beautiful delicate amusing serious stunning respectful fantasy foreign lonely solitary rebellious insubordinate
heroic mysterious natural passionate ablaze fanatic friendship innate bred hopeful emotional sullen desperate splendid mature wondorous ornate fantastical rugged grimy grandeour honorable adversity secretive red
To Suggest List To suggest the hero’s journey. To suggest one’s part of a larger picture. To suggest loyalty to family and friends. To suggest a feeling of nostalgia. To suggest maturity in children. To suggest a symbolic moment of revelation. To evoke a feeling of the past in a modern way.