Why hello there, fellow readers! It’s your Readability host, Ashlee! For today’s episode, I wanted to give a review of The Night Garden by Polly Horvath! Not much to say, but of course, thank you all for your support on Readability! But, besides that, let’s get into the episode! I hope you enjoy it!
Book Review Podcast
The Review
There’s a lot to cover in this book, so I’ll try and make this as short and straightforward as possible.
It starts with the Whitekrafts receiving a new baby from a caseworker who is unable to deliver a baby because the people next door, who were the ones to receive the baby, we’re in a fire. Yeah… and just like that, when the baby is in Mrs. Whitekrafts, or Sina’s, hands, the caseworker has a heart attack right on their doorstep! And that’s just the beginning.
Later on, we see Old Tom/Mr. Whitekraft, even though nobody calls him that, Sina, her real name is Thomasina, but since this book is in the daughter’s point of view, Sina, and finally, Franny! The Whitekraft daughter.
A woman nicknamed Crying Alice has to drop off her children in order to get her husband stable and not do something wild. The Maddens, Winnifred, Wilfred, and Zebediah stay at their house while going on wild adventures and finding out things about what Mr. Madden or Fixing Bob, is up to. Zebediah sends and receives a letter from his father and Winnifred and Franny want to find out what it’s all about.
Author Praise
The plot of this story is very interesting and wild. Polly Horvath has a great way to get her readers engaged in the story that she’s telling. Now, there are something’s I wanted to mention. The way Polly writes the story may be a bit confusing for younger readers, or readers who have trouble understand the writing in general, so just be aware of that!
Book Details
- There are 304 pages throughout the book
- And in those 304 pages, there are 22 chapters
- The book itself did not win and award, but Polly Horvath is a National Book Award winner
- The publishing brand was Square Fish
What’s Your rating?
If I had to rate this book out of 5, now don’t get angry, but I would most likely be a 2.5 out of five. The reason I’m giving this book a 2.5 rating, is because this book was pretty confusing and had me thinking, “wait, what?” Of course, it’s not terrible! I wouldn’t say something like, burn it in a fire! But it’s not I book I would want to read again.
Though, if I had to, I would. The plot was pretty good but the way the information was said, was pretty hard to process in my brain. At some points in the book, I had to re-read a sentence to get what Polly was trying to explain the line. And occasionally, she would word phrases that sound incorrect.
Would I Recommend?
I mean, not really. And what I mean by that is, it’s not the best book, as I’ve been mentioning multiple times before. Like any other person, you want to give a recommendation of something you personally really liked and want others to enjoy as well! For me, this wasn’t a book I really enjoyed. So I wouldn’t recommend this to kids my age. But, yes, I am fully aware that if I DO recommend this to somebody, this could be a book they would enjoy!
Highlights
Besides all of that, let’s see some things that I really enjoyed throughout this book.
- I really enjoyed how close Franny is with Sina. Their mother and daughter relationship is not too present I think the books, but you can tell they are close and they really love each other. Of course, Old Tom does love Franny too, but it’s not shown in the story
- Winifred and Franny’s process of figuring out what Zebediah is trying to hide from them. It’s mostly Winifred who is determined to figure out what her little brother is up to, but Franny does tag alongside Winifred and it seems pretty entertaining!
- Finally, the mysteries behind the night garden gives the reader a bit of suspense and makes them think, I wonder this, I wonder that! And I think that’s a good thing to have in the book!
Character Thoughts
The characters in this story have different personalities, but they are still a bit bland. We have Zebediah, the curious, crazy, and interesting six years old, then we have Wilfred, a bland, normal, nine-year-old boy. Sure, they may have different personalities, but I don’t think Polly gives a lot of character in them.
The character I dislike the most would be Fixing Bob. If he hadn’t believed that he could fly the plane, he wasn’t supposed to, most of this wouldn’t happen. And, for spoiling reasons, I won’t go too deep into them. My favorite character is Sina. She’s super talented and is witty. Sina is also caring for close family members and especially of her ONLY daughter, Franny.
Thank you for listening!
Even if this may not be the most episode, I really hope you enjoyed my review on The Night Garden by Polly Horvath! I had a great time creating this and I hope you think it was worth it! It’s time to listen to our Offical readability ending!