Tom’s Midnight Garden is a book I have read by Philippa Pearce. It was published in 1958 so the language in it is different from what we would see today. The genre is adventure, as Tom goes on an adventure around the garden. It is about a boy named Tom who has to go to his aunt and uncle’s house to stay temporarily because his brother, Peter, has measles.
When Tom first goes to his aunt and uncle’s, he was bored, but curious because there was a grandfather clock with a “13th hour.” He missed his brother and he couldn’t get to sleep, and when he saw the 13th hour on the clock, he sneaked out to the garden.
In the garden, he met a girl named Hatty, who ends up being one of the main protagonists in the story. Hatty says she is a princess, even though she is not, however that isn’t important the story. Time moves faster in the garden, so he can stay in there for a long time, even though it’s just an hour.
He ends up going to the garden every night, and something completely new happens every night. He meets someone called Abel, who is extremely protective over Hatty. Since everything moves faster in the garden, some big and important things an happen very quickly. A fir-tree that previously had an effect of the story came down, leaving it to never be mentioned again.
The book is quite a serious book, and doesn’t have much humor, but a funny bit in the book is when Tom and Hatty are fighting over which one of them might be a ghost.
At the end of the book, Tom and Hatty go skating down Ely, in one of the frostiest winters Ely had ever had. It didn’t take long to become winter, as it started of in summer, but became winter in only a couple of months.
A interesting quote from the book is: “Nothing stands still, except in our memory.”
In conclusion, I would rate the book 4/5, as it is a good and exciting book, but it can get boring sometimes.
