Tom's Midnight Garden Paperback – October 30, 1992

After reading this magical novel, my only regret is that I was unaware of it when I was a child. Tom’s Midnight Garden is filled with imagination. The author has infused Tom Long with the curiosity, impatience, and determination of youth. Though respectful to his aunt and uncle, who have graciously taken him into their home while his brother recovers from the measles, Tom is adventurous and refuses to spend summer as a quiet guest.Upon finishing the book, three things occurred to me.There’s No Real Bad GuyAs most children will tell you when recalling their favorite fairy tales, there’s always a bad guy. And that’s because the hero never starts off as a hero. He must discover in himself powers he never knew he had—usually by defeating his enemy. But in this story, Tom revels in a newly found freedom and sense of wonder by spending time in the garden with Hatty.The closest this book comes to a bad guy is Hatty’s aunt. Though severe, she isn’t all that bad. After all, she’s provided a home for the girl and, despite her conviction that her sons come first, she is not a monster.Time Can Be an Enemy or a FriendThe annoying grandfather clock that cannot seem to tell time properly provides the means by which Tom travels into the past to meet Hatty. Mostly, Tom uses this bit of sorcery to his advantage, visiting and revisiting his friend in different seasons. He even figures out how to have Hatty hide a pair of ice skates for him to find in his own time so that he can go ice skating with her in the past. Sheer brilliance!But Time can also be an enemy of sorts. Tom cannot control it, nor can he determine when the adventure will end. And when it does, the boy is devastated. He wasn’t even able to say goodbye properly. The grandfather clock no longer permits him to go back, and he is left with only memories of Hatty at different ages, from girl to young woman.Dreams Can Create Powerful ConnectionsToward the end, when Tom is with Hatty, and she is all grown up, his brother magically appears and can see her, too. It’s because Tom has been writing daily to Peter about his adventures. And Peter’s imagination seems to be as vivid as his brother’s, thus transporting him into Hatty’s world.Tom’s Midnight Garden is a must-read for adults and children alike. Every page is filled with warmth, with each character—major and minor—lovingly drawn. It is a coming-of-age story, with Tom gaining an early appreciation for life through the eyes of a lonely girl growing into a confident young woman. And finally, it’s a story of friendship, forged in a garden as timeless as imagination itself.

This is the most delightful story and will be hard to put down! Wonderfully charming and heartwarming. Great for boys or girls 10-13 age range, although I just re read it as an adult and couldn’t put it down! It is such a fun, unusual, and mysterious story that feels like truly an escape to another time and place.

This story has managed to crawl inside my imaginative faculties with that captivating grandfather clock. I’ve always loved ticking clocks and my favorite is the deep, comforting tock of the grandfather clock. Between wake and sleep I imagine my own clock striking 13 o’clock. In my mind’s eye I rise and emerge from my front door to another place and time that is not my own.How wonderfully Pearce concludes her story of Tom and Hatty- how wonderfully she captures the qualities of time suspended by the power and draw of human connectedness, an idea I’ve always been drawn to since I realized I have a real love for people who’s paths I cannot cross in my own time. It’s always fascinated me that time exists simultaneously but also because of the limits of our human senses- we are bound by the moments as the seconds fall away like a path that disintegrates after the last step is taken. We are forced to move forward in our finite sense but also, this book is a reminder that reality is not bound by our simple perceptions but exists outside of that- like God I suppose.This book would be a wonderful book for any child or adult who can forget themselves and appreciate childlike wonder. I feel the child in us sometimes might be more perceptive than our older self and can help keep us sensible to goodness, beauty, and truth. Childlike eyes see things so clearly sometimes.

“Tom’s Midnight Garden” upends the icon of Time and spills out fresh and tempting possibilities.Tom, quarantined from his measles-stricken younger brother, is sent to stay with his prim aunt and uncle who rent a flat partitioned from a once-grand house. Though unhappy at first, his life changes on ensuing midnights when he walks a dark downstairs hall, passes a looming clock, then steps out the back door into a sprawling garden that does not exist during his daytimes. There he meets young Hatty, the story’s adhesive yet variable character and Tom’s companion throughout his quarantined midnights.With each garden visit, seasons, people and hours transform. Story-tendrils coil, twist away in mist, reappear in thunder and vanish in the snow. Young people skate a frozen river in the night.The story’s charmed heart is Tom’s unsure personal footing and halting questions on his path to discovery. No fear here. No meanness. No ogres. The story just seeps in, flowing to its finish while leaving behind a wide delta of “I wonder” thoughts.

There are certain books the reviews for which always start along the lines of, "I remember reading this book as a child ..."). Often, those books are well-written, mellow, old-fashioned, almost dreamy, mood pieces. There is rarely any discussion of who might want to read the book now. That's more or less what we have here.This book is certainly a classic. The writing is restrained and the development of the writer's themes is subtle. It is a wonderful example of the best in English children's writing, and quite worthy of all those fond memory reviews. But, do you want this book now for your modern child's library now? I think the answer is yes, not because the book is essential reading, but because you should have it on the chance that you're young reader will respond to it. Would I encourage every kid to read this? No. Would I invite some kids to try it? Yes. Would I want it on the shelf to be discovered. Absolutely.