The Night Gardener

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Most trees cast an air of quiet dignity over their surroundings. This one did not. Most trees invite you to climb up into their canopy. This one did not. Most trees make you want to carve your initials into the trunk. This one did not. To stand in the shadow of this tree was to feel a chill run through your whole body. One more thing I found very interesting was how the story kept raising one question: what is the difference between a story and a lie? The entire story seems to be built on this foundation and it is sustained to the very end. There’s no better place for writing than on a rooftop—the fresh air makes your words come out like songs.” Auxier achieves an ideal mix of adventure and horror, offering all of it in elegant, atmospheric language that forces the reader to slow down a bit and revel in both the high-quality plot and the storytelling itself."

The story evolves around what they discover about the new home and the man that wanders the grounds at night—often chilling and spooky. He develops it by starting with the mundane and carefully adding the ghostly elements. Storytelling and the secret desires of the heart wind together in this atmospheric novel that doubles as a ghost tale."The Night Gardener tells us of two orphaned Irish siblings Molly and Kip who are forced to work as servants in an eerie English manor. The owners of the manor seem very mysterious, but they soon realise that the family of four isn't the creepiest thing in the house. Wait till they meet..... The Night Gardener! **Insert Evil Laugh here!** The Night Gardener is about the impression and long lasting effects magic and art can make on a soul and a community. Long after the “ooohs” and “aaahh”s fade away—the hope and energy of a creation or magical moment remain. Magic is out there for all to see, feel, find, and change us! If you like creepy Victorian tales, this novel is for you. The Night Gardener immediately grabs you and refuses to let the reader go. It's a spooky tale of two young kids, Kip and Molly-- a brother with a crippled leg and a storytelling sister who occasionally lies. They visit and eventually work the mysterious at the Windsor home. A home with tree built around it.

Written beautifully, nicely paced, and pollinated by a rich group of believable characters—well done! For a time, the book this most reminded me of was M.P. Kozlowsky’s little known Juniper Berry, a title that could rival this one in terms of creepiness. Both books involve trees and wishes and souls tied into unlawful bargains with dark sources. There the similarities end, though. Auxier has crafted with undeniable care a book that dares to ask whether or not the things we wish for are the things best for us in the end. His storytelling works in large part too because he gives us a unique situation. Here we have two characters that are desperately trying to stay in an awful, dangerous situation by any means necessary. You sympathize with Molly’s dilemma at the start, but even though you’re fairly certain there’s something awful lurking beneath the surface of the manor, you find yourself rooting for her, really hoping that she gets the job of working there. It’s a strange sensation, this dual hope to both save the heroine and plunge her into deeper danger. Molly & Kip: these two are wonderful protagonists for young readers to read about. They have depth and discover things about themselves though the story. There are some great messages in what these kids go through.The branch was dark and smooth and slightly curved. It wasn’t a branch at all— It was the handle of an axe.” As I mentioned before, Auxier’s previous novel Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes was his original chapter book debut. As a devotee of Peter Pan and books of that ilk, it felt like more of an homage at times that a book that stood on its own two feet. In the case of The Night Gardener no such confusion remains. Auxier’s writing has grown some chest hair and put on some muscles. Consider, for example, a moment when Molly has woken up out of a bad dream to find a dead leaf in her hair. “Molly held it up against the window, letting the moonlight shine through its brittle skin. Tiny twisted veins branched out from the center stem – a tree inside a tree.” I love the simplicity of that. Particularly when you take into account the fact that the tree that created the leaf may not have been your usual benign sapling. Truth be told, with Terry and Eric Fan’s The Night Gardener I have actually (and pretty rarely for me at that) both enjoyed the accompanying illustrations considerably more than the presented narrative and in fact have also found the Fan brothers printed words not really even remotely on par with their glowing and delightfully evocative illustrations. In other words, reading the featured text of The Night Gardener with its basic simplicity and indeed rather unimaginative and blah standard ending, at least to and for me, this seems to kind of pull down the pictures a trifle, it seems to distract from illustrations that with their lushness and attention to detail really do totally shine, but which glow is then if not extinguished at least dimmed and lessened somewhat by an accompanying narrative that I for one have found both more than a bit monotonous in scope and also much too alike and akin to other picture books featuring “special” gardeners. This is the story of two Irish orphans who are going to work for a family in exchange for food and shelter. They're discouraged from this by everyone they come across because the Windsor house is one place no one dares go. But of course, because where would the story be otherwise, they venture on, and find a house interwoven with a tree that radiates a chill like they've never felt. The family inside appears hollow and rotting slightly, and Molly and Tip soon discover why. The manor’s Son and Daughter are oblivious and affected slightly. The husband, who fled the place as a child when his parents disappeared, desperately seeks business in town, with unsavoury associates. Spending nights away clearly helps. It is the wife whose health is being leeched by.... something. A secret she harbours indicates that she is permitting the toxicity, with whatever self-awareness she has left, to sustain that secret.

Be warned, though, this book be very disturbing for the very young. For example, a sinister man walking around the house at night, sometimes peering over their beds, may cause nightmares for the weak, like me.If you aren't afraid of a good spine-tingling mystery featuring stories and lies and hurdy-gurdies and hills and glowing midnight flowers, this is a book for you. All proper scary stories require a spooky, menacing atmosphere, and Auxier (Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes) delivers the goods with his precise descriptions of the gothic setting and teasing hints of mystery and suspense." You asked me for a story; now you call it a lie. … So tell me, then: What marks the difference between the two?” I discovered about a quarter into this book that I should have saved it for Halloween. If I had to describe it's vibe in a word it would be unsettling . For most of the book there's nothing truly scary, but it's just... off. But that, in my opinion, is a compliment to the author. I was so immersed in this story and these characters that I couldn't pull myself away, no matter how freaked out I was. I figured out certain plot points about 70% in and, my sister can attest to this, I shivered from the chill that ran down my spine. It was perfection. The story is a bit spooky, but if you’re looking for something that is just slightly on the creepy side, this one would be an awesome read.

Molly, our main character, is the older sister of Kip. As orphans, they struggle to get by. They're Irish, and face xenophobia and discriminatory remarks from people in England, which is where the book takes place. When we meet Molly and Kip, they are traveling to the Windsor estate where they are to work as servants. The estate is surrounded by "sour woods"; the local villagers refuse to enter the woods and go to the estate, which legend has it is cursed. The Windsors are Bertram and Constance, who are parents to six year old Penny and young teenager Alistair. When Molly and Kip get to the house, however, Constance does not want the children to stay. Molly is able to convince Constance by telling her a story - Molly is quite talented in that regard. And so they stay, although they recognize that something is odd and sinister about the place. There's a tree growing alongside the house, as if its become one with the house:Dragi pufoși, dacă sunteți mari amatori de cărți ilustrate, puneți neapărat The Night Gardener (Simon & Schuster) pe lista voastră. The Night Gardener is a middle-grade fiction novel written by Jonathan Auxier. Apparently, this is a follow-up to Mr. Auxier's debut novel ( Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes), but I read this as a standalone and enjoyed it as such.