Hmmm...this book wasn’t for me. The illustrations weren’t my favorite and the storyline was very wordy.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

This was a wonderful adaptation, made all the more beautiful by the lovely artwork and design. A great book to include in a classroom library.

Hmmm...not for me. I was excited because I love the book The Secret Garden book and the 90s movie, and enjoy graphic novels. But this just started off weird and never stopped being weird. Mary uses the word crap? I didn't really like the illustrations. I just felt the whole vibe of the book did not match the original source material AT ALL.

Thank you to NetGalley/Publisher for an ARC.

The third time in short order I've come across an adaptation of the FH Burnett original, where the girl who seems to be a stuck-up young bitch, and other characters, find the redemptive power of nature, hope and care for other things. So far I've had this one (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3911385678) which was so full of wokeness and so scared of white-shaming it couldn't even dare start in India, as it ought, but proved to be a fine graphic novel adap, and this other (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4221682515) which was great for a young audience, but didn't give us time to change our mind about the characters nor show the nuance in their arcs, and visually presented no growth in our heroine.

This take on it all, then, is suitably interesting, although is only the first half of the story – they've met, but you-know-who is yet to go you-know-where. What makes this stand out for me is that it's the only one of the three to really start in a defined, British winter – so many glass cloches in the garden protecting the plants from frost; shrapnel paths of stunted, lifeless tree growth before the green leaves come back; and so on. The two parts – and the first is the only we have as of my writing, even in the original French – should therefore really allow for the story, and for the garden and characters, to progress and develop over the calendar months.

As adaptations go, this is quite a wordy one, but not so the text takes over – no, there is still room for quite the overly-cartoonish girl to be front and centre. At least the nature looks more realistic – and I feel the second half could really blossom and be a lovely evocation of a classic summer. With that optimistic prediction in mind, then, this joins the other versions above in getting four stars – but hey, you'd have to go some to ruin such a timeless and welcome story.

I received a copy of this graphic novel through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely love The Secret Garden. With The Little Princess it’s probably one of my favourite children books and thus I was extremely happy to get an e-arc of a graphic novel based on it. 😊
I found it to be a great tribute to the classic children book. The art is beautiful and it delivers the loveliness of the story. The characters are depicted accurately and the garden is magnificent! 😊
I adore this graphic novel and hope to read the second part as well!😍

I absolutely love the original novel, so this was such a wonderful adaptation. It portrays the story so well, and even though it has been a little while since I have read the original, this brought me right back. I thought the art was perfect. I love the facial expressions on the characters, and the colors were lovely, especially in the garden. I cannot wait until the second part!

I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own

A beautiful rendition of one of my absolutely favorite stories! The illustrations encapsulate the magic of the novel.

This is a delightful graphic novel based on the children’s classic, The Secret Garden. A very relevant story to choose during the pandemic, as many people were stuck in lockdown in houses they never expected to be in. The artwork is so wonderful and all the characters are so distinct, with such expressive faces, I feel the sad grumpiness of Mary described vividly in the image.I am looks forward to part 2!

I never read the original book so this is my first introduction to The Secret Garden.
It is a lovely story for both adults and young readers. The art in this graphic novel is beautifully done and I am being transported to the grey and moody England in this first part of The Secret Garden. I particularly love the facial expressions, the mansion and the sleeping garden and can't wait for part two to come out, with what I think is a colorful garden in spring blooming.

The story is good but the illustrations are what makes this a special read for me. I would recommend this to anyone who like graphic novels.

The Secret Garden is one of my favorite children's stories, so I really enjoyed this graphic novel version. The illustrations were lovely and did an excellent job depicting the descriptions from the story that had to be omitted in this condensed format. I can't wait to see the subsequent installments.

It has been quite a while since I’ve read Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1912 classic The Secret Garden. I know I read it sometime in elementary school, but its has been quite a few decades now. What a stroke of luck, to find Europe Comics had published this story in graphic novel form, adapted and drawn by Maud Begon. I’m always a fan of companies doing stuff like this, as some classic books, no matter how short, are going to be avoided entirely by some people for better or worse. Having a true-to-print comic adaptation available not only gets the story in more people’s hands, but could be the spark that brings reading into somebody’s life. A relatively thorough adaptation, there are only a few sections missing from this version, and truthfully the missing stuff isn’t that important. This is part one in what I can only assume will be two books upon completion.

“When Mary’s parents die, she moves to England, where she is sent to a strange mansion in the middle of the Yorkshire moors, belonging to her uncle. It is here that she discovers the comfort of friendship… and a wonderful secret that she soon shares with her new companions: a garden forgotten by everyone, whose key, as if by magic, also opens the doors to broken hearts. This is a two-part graphic adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1912 classic of children’s literature.”

Being a largely unwanted child in a time when children were “best seen not heard”, if even seen at all, Mary has all the benchmarks of becoming a doomed sociopath of some nature when she grows up. Her parents ignored her, and she was abandoned when Cholera wiped out her Indian manor house. She seemingly feels no sadness for this, as her relationship with her family was already poor. It’s not until she meets people that actually care for her, and treat her like a person that he icy heart melts just enough to begin to see the beauty in the world. Being able to nurture “The Secret Garden” back to life after ten years of grief and neglect parallels her rejuvenation as a person. It is a story that summarizes the social changes of early 20th century Europe, and our departure from institutionalized informal child-rearing into something more resembling what we do now. If you have never read this classic, I’d definitely recommend this new comic from Europe Comics. More so than any film I’ve seen based on the original story, this captures the magic and wonder of the original in a way that makes this such a worthy tribute.

Very nice art and a faithful retelling. Perhaps too faithful for the age group I’d be buying for.
I’ve been a long time fan of The Secret Garden so was thrilled to review this. I think a graphic novel is the perfect medium for such a story

4 *stars*
I haven't read the original book, but I'm eager to pick it up.

The illustrations are really gorgeous, but it was hard to read the old English words. That's my biggest issue with this graphic novel.
I assume there will be another part of to this graphic novel, as it stops midway and I'm looking forward to it.

Thank you!
#EuropeComics #NetGalley

This is the first part in a graphic novel adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s "The Secret Garden" from 1912. The story follows Mary Lennox who grew up in the British colony of India. Suddenly her family dies of a sickness and Mary is taken back to England and placed in the care of her uncle. Mary is very pessimistic and has a hard time adapting to this rainy and cloudy country until she befriends a red robin and learns about a secret garden in need of care.
The graphic novel was beautiful! The art was great and the story was very interesting. As this is an adaptation of a classic children's novel there are words from older English that made it difficult to understand in the beginning but once I got used to it I had no issues. I love how Mary progresses throughout the book and I'm curious what will happen in the next part of the duology.

A lovely graphic novel that has a great plot and artwork! I will definitely be sharing this with my students as they are in love with great stories!

The Secret Garden is one of my favorite children classics books. I read it multiple times and even wrote my college thesis on it.
This graphic novel perfectly represents the feeling of the book through images. It shows the colourful and vivid imagination of children without disregarding the other themes of the classic novel: that of growing up, that of friendship and that of the wonders of childhood.
The story is pretty much accurate, but the pacing is a little off. This graphic novel moves much faster than the original story does.

Mary is a spoilt, selfish child who lives in India; but after the death of her parents, she moves to the moors in England to live with her uncle, Mr Craven. It’s there she discovers the secret garden.

As a fan of the original book, I really loved this adaptation of The Secret Garden. It was a quick read, and the illustrations were really fun and gorgeous; they captured Mary’s expressions, the gloomy atmosphere of England’s moors, and those beautiful flowers.

The graphic novel is split into two parts, and I definitely can’t wait to read the second instalment.


TW // death mentioned, isolation, sickness

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The illustrations in this book are lovely and I think they will shine even more in print.

I never read the original novel and I feel I might have liked this book better if I had some of that nostalgia attached to it. I'm personally not a fan of text being spelled wrong in order to portray accents and I found that a bit distracting. I think this is a book made for people who already love this story especially since it ends midway through the original story.

Mary lives in India with her parents. When they both die of Cholera, she moves to England with her uncle Mr. Craven, in an old house with many gardens. Now, Mary has a place to stay, but her uncle doesn’t want to see her. With no one to watch over her, she explores her uncle’s vast property outside. Until she finds a secret garden.

The Secret Garden is an adaptation of a classic novel with the same title. I didn’t read the original, but I knew the story. Color illustrations are maybe not so classical, but they are lovely all the same. This graphic novel is part 1, the first half of the story. I think children and adults who already like or would like to read Secret Garden will enjoy this graphic novel.

Content warnings: death of a parent mentioned

Thanks to Europe Comics for the ARC and the opportunity to read this! All opinions are my own.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a sweet adaptation of the first part of The Secret Garden. I loved the illustration style in this book. The illustrator did an excellent job capturing the personalities of all of the characters and their facial expressions were all so on point. The drawings of flowers were beautiful and I can't wait to see the garden in full bloom in the second book!