A sci-fi reimagining of The Secret Garden with literal magic and mystery at its heart. This book draws you in immediately and it definitely leaves you wanting more by the end. I’m glad I waited so long to read it because now I can start the sequel immediately.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me access to the free advanced digital copy of this book.

The way people started living on the moon and other planets in the story was not very creative. Myra is a likeable character who is trying to figure out where she belongs in the world. She discovers a plan that will affect people in all the planets of our solar system. The book was not difficult to understand and had a lot of emotional situations that kids and teens often experience. I enjoyed the main characters and the way they added feelings and energy to the story. However, the topics and problems are not as complex.

Oh my, the universe is in terrible trouble. Thank goodness for 12 year olds here to save the universe once again. This is a good start to a new series. This is an innovative sci-fi with a magical twist. I sure hope she is able to save us in book 2.

This book delivered, what the cover promised. I had a great time with this Secret Garden retelling. I thought it was well done and a quick, and fantastic read. Highly recommend!

I really enjoyed this story! I loved how this world set in the future could really be a possibility and the added magic was the cherry on top. The main character was very relatable and the side characters were also interesting. I’m looking forward to the sequel!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher, Penguin Random House, for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed the mix of futuristic and STEM throughout this novel. I’ll be honest, it was a little hard to get into, but once I was over halfway through, I felt the story really picked up. Plus at the end you find out there will be another book so the building of the world and characters was needed. I also really enjoyed the M/F friendship represented and can see how this book would pair nicely with a science and ELA curriculum in a middle school classroom, as well as stretch students thinking about themselves and their world.

Fans of City of Ember and ther Secret Garden are going to appreciate this story. It's a bit of both with environmental issues thrown in. Good one for Earth Day. I think upper grade school kids will enjoy this tale, it's well told and interesting read.

I adored this Secret Garden retelling! I loved all the nods to the source material while still keeping it fresh and different. I also appreciated the environmental push within the story. Overall a very fun read. I can't wait to read the next one!

Unfortunately I couldn´t get to this book before its archive date, however I´m still interested in picking it up in the future. I wish the author the best!

Moongarden's premise is fascinating, allowing the author to create a very intriguing world. The young protagonist is relatable in her curiosity and I want to know more about her struggles. The side characters are also very interesting and well developed. This book absolutely needs a sequel, soon, because I need to know what happens next!

I really enjoyed this story. The future fantasy was grounded in actual possibility and the addition of magic was done in a believable way. I particularly loved Myra discovering her connection to plants.

The villain reveal did feel a little about but was logical for the story. I'm excited to see what happens next.

Plotting the Stars 1: Moongarden by Michelle A. Barry is an interesting take on the science as magic troupe adapted for middle grade students. I enjoyed the writing and found the story to be interesting. I felt like the characters, though meant to be around 13 behaved in ways that were much older and I wouldn’t recommend a child under the age of thirteen to read it as it introduces relationships in a way I wouldn’t expect them to be mature enough to understand. That being said each family is different, I allow my children to read mostly what they feel they are ready for. I will not be continuing the series personally but I can see how a 12-14 year old would absolutely eat this story up. All in all well done.

In a retelling of The Secret Garden, Myra lives on a moon colony in the 2400s, after humans fled Earth due to toxic chemicals leaked by plants into the atmosphere. The space colonies all have different Creers of magic—specialities that people can study and learn how to use (Numbers, Elector, Mendor, etc). Myra’s parents are renowned Number Whisperers and she is expected to follow in their footsteps, but she has a secret: she has never felt a spark of magic for numbers. However, one day she stumbles on an illegal, hidden garden and realizes her true calling—botanical magic.

This was a really fun re-telling of The Secret Garden 🪴 it really made me want to re-read the classic(a favorite when I was younger), but I also enjoyed the sci-fi/fantasy spin on the tale. I could see some kids who would enjoy the magic, though the pacing made it a little hard to get into at first! Overall, I really liked the magic system and learning about different fields—I kind of felt like there were sections taken out that may have offered more context while I was reading, but I had fun getting to the end and was still on the edge of my seat wondering what would happen between Dr. Weathers and Myra at the end! I’m looking forward to the next book!

I absolutely adored this book. Can’t wait to read the next one in the series. I loved the characters. I loved the friendship feels and positive themes, all wrapped up in descriptive imagery and a strange blend of sci-fi and fantasy. It’s got an inventive magic system where knowledge, science, magic, and sometimes even emotion are all entangled.

There’s some secret garden vibes (in a good way), but this story is totally its own thing. Restoring and protecting a secret garden draws together unlikely friends. As the garden comes alive, so do the characters. That’s the extent of the similarity. This book is original, unique, and really quite odd. It’s heartwarming at times, terribly sad at times, and surprisingly emotionally complex.

While I do think the backstory of the plants on earth suddenly evolving to emit poisonous gas and render Earth uninhabitable is a bit ridiculous, I found the story is well worth suspending your disbelief of that premise.

Weaved into the story are themes of self-acceptance, challenging society’s fears and prejudices, loyalty, love, grief, and found families. It’s never preachy or heavy-handed. It also doesn’t shy away from moral complexity and ethical issues. It's a YA book, but it's refreshingly mature and free of romance-related-angst.

THE PREMISE:

Set in the year 2448. Humans have discovered that science and magic are inherently connected, instead of being the separate things they were once thought to be. Myra is attending the Scientific Lunar Academy of Magic, a school for those with science-fueled magic built on the moon. The trouble is, she doesn’t appear to have any magical aptitude. Not the math-driven Number Whisperer magic that her parents practice, the chemistry-based magic of Chemics, the medical magic of Menders, or the electricity-driven magic of Electors. She’s never gotten any magical marks that appear on one’s skin as they develop their skills with one of these branches of magic. Soon, she fears she’ll be kicked out of school and sent to one for kids without magic. Then, her parents will definately find out she has way less magic than they think.

Until, she finds a garden hidden in the school. An illegal garden. As she tends to the garden that’s fallen into great disrepair, she begins to suspect that she might have magic afterall. Plant magic. Magic thought to have died out long ago. Forbidden magic.

Long ago, the plants on earth mutated and began to give off poisonous fumes. Earth was rendered uninhabitable. A third of Earth’s population died. The rest fled to off-world colonies. Now terrified of plants and plant magic, humans outlawed plants and began to live off of cloned plants grown only in carefully controlled laboratories.

But, Myra’s stumbed accross a garden full of non-cloned plants. Plants that certainly aren’t poisonous. Myra, a boy named Canter who also stumbles across the garden, and their friends secretly work to restore the garden and uncover its secrets. With rumors of catastrophic problems with the cloned food supply, Myra and her friends prepare to reveal the garden to prove that not all plants are dangerous and non-cloned plants can be safely used for food again. It might just be humanity’s best chance for survival. As they dig deeper into the secrets of the garden, they uncover suspicious deaths and dangers wrapped up in the garden’s history. When their friend, who knew the secrets of the garden, goes missing, they begin to fear people connected to the garden are being silenced. It turns out that a garden is a dangerous and controvertial secret to harbor.

CHARACTERS AND WRITING:

Myra’s a great strong female protagonist without being the stereotypical brave, bold, fearless, arrogant, impulsive, wanted-by-all-the-boys, boy-obsessed, great-at-everything YA fiction female main character. In fact, there’s also no romance, although there might be friendships that could develop into romance eventually.

Myra’s clever, kind, sometimes brave, and relatable. She disobedient, sarcastic, curious, a little bit sneaky, conflict-averse, introverted, self-conscious, secretive, and not very good at making friends at first. She’s a rule breaker, but not an angry rebel type. She can be a little bit morally gray at times. (There are times where lies, rule-breaking, or maybe even a little bit of implicit blackmail are in order if it’s for a good cause.) She builds up confidence over the course of the book and finds the courage to be honest with her parents. Friends worm their way into her life despite her closed off nature. They’re all brought together by the garden. Myra gets better at facing conflict, opening up to friends, and reflecting on her own mistakes.

The main characters are all lovable and imperfect, with hearts of gold. This is a young adult book with teenage main characters, but they mature a lot over the course of the book. It’s also not angsty, immature YA. The main characters all make understandable mistakes. They end up owning their mistakes, trying to do better, working to fix what they can.

Great character development. Well-written friendships, both new and old, that grow with the characters. These friends help each other grow, face their own flaws, learn from their mistakes, and venture out of their comfort zones. They learn to trust each other, teach each other, and work as a team.

Myra and her friends each display strokes of brilliance by the end of the book. They make plenty of rookie mistakes, but they’re all clever in their own way, have unique skills, and are learning fast. Getting sneakier, smarter, and even a bit more cynical and paranoid too. You can see how they’re starting to form a formidable team.

The teenage characters also learn to see adults, including their parents, as imperfect, complicated people who make mistakes. They also start to think about things bigger than themselves, instead of falling into immature narcissism. These protagonists want to be free to be themselves. They want answers. They also want to help humanity. To contribute. To make things better. To make a difference.

For a while, it seemed like the book might side-step the tougher ethical issues of its sci-fi world, but instead it grappled with them head on. Where things could have been written in black and white, the author instead allowed things to be gray. Kids discover secrets the adults have been keeping. Mistakes they’ve made. Instead of condemning them as heartless or completely irredeemable, they acknowledge them as flawed people that believed they were (or are) doing the right thing.

THE ENDING:

To be continued ending. No cliffhanger. The ending is bittersweet, but hopeful. Some things are resolved, new problems have arisen, and there’s a lot more to come for this series. The characters have grown a lot. They’ve got more gardening and more magic to do. And maybe, an old friend of Myra’s to help too.

Warnings: death (off-page), slavery (enslavement of clones, condemned by the main characters, nothing graphic)

I recieved a free eARC of this book via NetGalley. I am writing this review completely honestly and voluntarily.

Let's start by saying this is a nod to the classic Secret Garden so references in terms of characterization and build up is observed all throughout. However, it also combined sci-fi and magical realism creating the wonderful concept of intergalactic relations.

Typical set up includes highschool cliches, workaholic and highly accomplished parents who assumed their daughter would take after them, semi outcast lead establishing unusual friendship with the hotshot of the campus, a room mate who covers for the lead while she is out during curfew and a side kick robot. Given that the main lead is a 12 year old, the writing style is also geared towards young adults so the mediocre character development of the main lead is understandable.

The magical system and the premise on how humans started occupying the moon and other planetary bodies made up for those clichés. The magical system is geared towards science where all students with initial affinity to certain topics learn and practice their magic. Once they passed their practical exams, they get inscriptions tattooed on their body. Our main cast, just got inscripted to a defunct and forbidden magic called Botan; yes, you got it - plant magic.

While all said and done that the concept is interesting and that this is the first book in the series, it's half bad half good. Half bad because the foundation of the premise was not fully established and might make it difficult for some readers to pick up the next one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pixel+Ink for allowing me to read an eARC of Michelle A. Barry's Plotting the Stars: Moongarden This is a sci-fi, magical, STEAM inspired re-imagining of The Secret Garden set in the year 2448.
The Old World (Earth) had to be abandoned hundreds of years before because the plants became toxic and made the air unbreathable. It is now illegal to possess seeds or grow plants, and there are problems with the food supply for the planets.
Myra Hodger is a 1st year student at the prestigious Scientific Lunar Academy of Magic (S.L.A.M.) located on the moon. Everyone expects her to be a brilliant Number Whisperer like her parents, but she doesn't hear the numbers. She has no friends, does not get along with her 3 roommates, and feels like she doesn't fit in, until she finds the moongarden. With the help Bernie (a clone), Bin-Ro (a small robot) and Canter Weathers (a 2nd year & the school director's son) Myra sets out to prove that all plants are not poisonous and that well tended gardens on the planets will solve the food supply problems.

I really enjoyed this book and plan on purchasing it for my library.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a dystopian, and I quite enjoyed this one. The plot was interesting, and the characters were fun. I’m interested to see where the story goes!

Myra Hodger is quite contrary. She can’t seem to help it. Sent to a boarding school on the moon for magically-inclined students, Myra prefers wandering the halls to actually attending her classes. Then one day, she follows a little robot to a place that is full of life and beauty and danger: a hidden garden.

The Secret Garden is one of my all-time favorite books. I think I’ve read it at least a dozen times. As soon as I heard about this middle grade sci-fi/fantasy take on the old classic, I jumped at the chance to read it. There are plenty of nods to the original story. Myra and Bin-ro are anagrams for Mary and robin. Canter and Bernie are clearly variations of Colin Craven and Ben Weatherstaff. There is an underlying theme of returning to nature rather than relying solely on modern technology or inventions.

At the same time, this book isn’t afraid to be its own thing. Myra’s parents are alive but preoccupied. Canter is not sickly or unsocial. He thrives at S.L.A.M. and is popular among the students. There is a much larger and more deliberate conspiracy at S.L.A.M. then there ever was at Misselthwaite Manor. There’s also the minor detail that it takes place on the moon. The result is a captivating blend of old and new.

The magic system in this book leans toward the science-based end of the spectrum. Students begin by studying theory for a given subject. If they succeed in their attempts at practical magic, tattoos (referred to as scripts), appear on their arms. Someone who is skilled in their area of magic is covered in ink. The arm of a novice like Myra is bare.

What an absolute delight of a novel! I loved reading Moongarden. This sci-fi version of the secret garden was a fantastic weave of tech and magic! I loved the futuristic lunar colony descriptions and the mysteries behind the Botans. I am now eagerly awaiting book 2! Thank you so much to the publisher and author for an advanced copy! I loved it!