THE SECRET GARDEN
PRESS RELEASE
For the Children on Your Holiday Gift List,
This Timeless Storybook
—Condensed for Today’s Readers and Beautifully Illustrated—
Stands the Test of Time
Just in time for the children on your holiday gift list comes an abridged, easier-to-read version of the timeless children’s classic The Secret Garden (Head Butler Inc., $20). Colorfully illustrated and mindful of children’s short attention spans and the challenges that the original book’s archaic and elaborate language presented, this shorter version of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden has been deftly abridged to appeal to young readers, as well as to moms, dads and grandparents who don’t always have time to read books aloud to the children they love. Most importantly, this new version remains true to the original story and the life lessons it imparts.
Breathing new life—and new beauty—into a beloved classic whose life lessons never grow old. By abridging The Secret Garden from its original 80,000 words to just 35,000, co-editors Paige Peterson and Jesse Kornbluth have made this classic easier to understand for children who are too young to read or who need help grasping its morals about the healing powers of friendship, love and nature. And mindful of children’s needs, this large-sized paperback (8½ x 11 inches) was designed for young hands that are learning to hold a proper notebook.
Paige Peterson’s vivid, heartening artwork paves the way for parents and other loved ones to share the story while turning the pages. Her colorful illustrations are as unforgettable as the story they illustrate.
“As a mother of grown children who loved The Secret Garden in their youth, I felt that a new generation of readers was ready for the sheer wonder of the book and the life lessons it imparts,” Peterson explains, adding, “Very few children grow up in a ‘perfect family.’ Likewise, the three youngsters in The Secret Garden are beset by adults who are in crisis and depressed, and this hardship teaches those children to be resilient. That’s a lesson for us all! Plus, this illustrated, abridged version makes this classic more accessible overall to children. Just in time for the holidays, too.”
A specially-priced three-book holiday gift set. With a nod to the unnecessary packaging and the millions of pounds of discarded holiday wrap and gift boxes that choke landfills every year, a three-book “unboxed” set with The Secret Garden, A Christmas Carol, and Black Beauty—each abridged by Peterson and Kornbluth and illustrated by Peterson—arrive, not in a fancy (and wasteful) holiday gift box, but tied together with a simple red-velvet ribbon. The gift set of three large-sized paperbacks retails for only $49.95 exclusively at BookPassage.com.
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WHAT BOOK-LOVERS ARE SAYING
“Paige Peterson is an exceptional artist whose illustrations
can even make old classics shine like new.”
—Zibby Owens, author, publisher
and host of the Moms Don’t Have Time To Read Books podcast
“The Secret Garden was one of my favorite childhood books!
Paige Peterson and Jesse Kornbluth have renewed and polished
this beloved children’s classic for the needs of today’s families.”
—Joan Ganz Cooney
Co-founder of Sesame Workshop & Co-creator of Sesame Street
ABOUT PAIGE PETERSON
Paige Peterson is the author of the memoir Growing Up Belvedere-Tiburon. She illustrated Blackie: The Horse Who Stood Still, which she co-authored with Christopher Cerf. As an illustrator, Ms. Peterson has collaborated with Jesse Kornbluth on the adaptations of A Christmas Carol, Black Beauty and The Secret Garden. As a painter, Peterson has been honored by The Guild Hall Academy of the Arts in East Hampton. She is also the Author and Artist in Residence at Literacy Partners, a Board Member of Catmosphere, National Council on U.S. Arab Relations and Safari West Wildlife Foundation. Raised in Belvedere, California, Paige Peterson has two children and lives in New York City.
ABOUT JESSE KORNBLUTH
Jesse Kornbluth has been a Contributing Editor at the New York Times Magazine, New York, and Vanity Fair. From 1997 to 2003, he was Editorial Director of AOL. Since 2004, he has edited the cultural concierge site, HeadButler.com. In addition, Kornbluth has published two novels, Married Sex and JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story, and four books of nonfiction. In collaboration with Paige Peterson, Kornbluth has abridged three timeless children’s classics—A Christmas Carol, Black Beauty and The Secret Garden.
THE SECRET GARDEN—A SYNOPSIS
The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, was published first in the U.S. in August 1911 and, later that same year, in England, where the story takes place. The plot involves the unhappy Mary, who is orphaned at the age of 10 and sent from India to live with her morose widowed uncle on the Yorkshire Moors. Mary is utterly miserable until she meets Dickon, a common moor boy who can talk to the birds and make plants grow anywhere. Their friendship—and the discovery of a secret garden on the grounds of the house—change Mary. Then, she discovers another secret in the house—Colin, her disabled cousin, who has spent his childhood in his bed. Mary astutely enlists Dickon to bring the garden—and Colin, too—back to life. The Secret Garden was a radical departure from novels of the time in that Colin’s ascent from his sickbed is engineered by a young girl. Colin is perfectly content to report to Mary, which is very 21st century. This novel demonstrates the resilience of children, even when they are surrounded by uncaring and flawed adults.
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PRESS INQUIRIES:
Judy Twersky Public Relations, Inc.
www.judytwerskypr.com
(917) 597-5385
Email: Judy@judytwerskypr.com​​​
