Book Review: Locked Garden

I stumbled upon Gloria Whelan almost a decade ago, when I read her wonderful book, Listening for Lions.  I enjoyed that book so much that I talked the 5th grade teacher (in the room where I worked as an individual assistant) into letting me read it to the students as a read-aloud.  They loved the book and I became a fan of Gloria Whelan.

In The Locked Garden, Verna and Carlie are still grieving the loss of their mother, when they are moved with their father and Aunt Maude to the grounds of an asylum for the mentally ill.  Aunt Maude seems determined to put a damper on everything in her own way of dealing with the loss of her beloved sister.  The girls do their best to make the adjustments to their new environment and become friends with one of the patients in the asylum.  As Aunt Maude feels her influence over the girls slipping away, she attempts to wrench away their affections from the patient/friend.

I really enjoyed this book.  It was a light read, but full of emotional pull.  The characters were well-drawn and the plot moved along quickly.  Inspired by the Traverse City State Hospital in Traverse City, Michigan, this book teaches, via story, a great deal about mental illness and depression and the facilities which used to treat such illnesses.

I even found myself incorporating one of the activities the girls enjoyed in the book, receiving a penny for every new word they learn, into our daily routine.  Trevor and Sean are extremely eager to garner new words into their language reservoir as a result of this.  Already this week, they have earned pennies for "irked," "facade," "configuration," "procrastination," and "mortified."  This book is sure to appeal to both children and adults and will teach young readers new words in both English and German.