This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.
Find all my work at MJMunoz.com.
Prepare yourself for some off the cuff book talk as I tackle another middle grade book
chapter by chapter.
This is MJ bringing you my chapter by chapter review of Secret Garden chapter 3 across the
moor and this is a transitional chapter where, believe it or not, Mary Lennox goes across
the moor with Mrs. Medlock who's, I believe she's the chief maid or chief, how do you
call that, housekeeper of Uncle Archibald Craven's house.
And she has an interesting way about her and based on the conflict that she and Mary had
with each other in the last chapter, a little bit of conflict, not a ton, she is regarding
her with not a ton of favor.
She's not being horrible to her, but she kind of is, I don't know, not interested in catering
to the child's, I don't know, taciturn nature or I'm not exactly sure how to say that, but
basically she kind of, Mary at one point asks her, you know, what is a war?
Is it a notion?
Is it this?
Is it that?
And she says, you're going to find out on your own.
And she isn't unkind in saying that.
She's just being matter of fact, like look kid, you're going to figure this out on your
own, don't worry.
And then she goes ahead and explains to her after they've experienced it, once they've
gotten to it after this long stretch of miles of riding a carriage, a smart carriage, that
you know, this is what it is.
And then Mary gets to see the big house and it's nighttime when she's arriving.
And as she gets there, she gets more and more uncomfortable with it and likes it less and
less.
And we hear that it's kind of a desolate area.
It's just a lot of Heather and Grouse and I don't know, some other game bird of some
sort and there's not really much else going on there on the land.
And Mary isn't particularly interested in it.
And then when she reaches the servants, well, she's saying to herself, I don't like it.
I don't like it.
And then when she actually reaches the home and is let inside, she's again, not catered
to or anything.
I mean, she kind of is.
There's an interesting contrast or an interesting idea that's brought forth that she expects
everybody to go ahead and wait on her because that's what everybody did in India.
And she doesn't know to expect anything different.
So Midlock had earlier taken her stuff for her and put it in the carriage and she let
her do it.
She didn't offer help or anything like that.
And then we have actual servants at the manor house that do take her belongings for her
and put them up as they should.
That's their job.
That's their function.
And she has no issue with that.
But like nobody makes a fuss over her.
She overhears that her uncle doesn't want to see her and wants her to be kept away from
him basically.
So it sounds like to the audience, Mary's going into another situation with another
aloof relative who wants nothing to do with her.
And that doesn't sound very nice.
And that has to be hurtful to a child, I would think.
And that's basically the situation that she's going into.
It's pretty sad to think that that's what's going on, but you can't really stop that from
being the reality.
So that's just what she's going to have to deal with.
And it's funny, the author put in the last chapter that she was called Mary Mary quite
contrary and it says that when she got to the house, she was about as contrary as she
could possibly be.
So she is not going to be a happy camper.
And we're going to have to see how she gets over that because I, well, you know, I'm vaguely
food with the story and I know that changes, so it'll be interesting to see how that unfolds
and how that changes for her because right now she's not happy and she's kind of in a
place where she doesn't have a good understanding of what is expected of her and what she can
expect from these people around her.
And it'll be interesting to see how that blossoms and blooms and how things progress as we go
through the rest of the book.
So I'm still enjoying this.
It's interesting.
I'm not, this wasn't like a super compelling chapter, but it was interesting to hear the
description of like how spooky and how like forlorn the road to the manor house was.
And then just being there in the night and there's no welcome, there's no warmth.
It's I don't know.
It's interesting because it like is putting Mary in this place where she's alienated.
She's not surrounded by a bunch of kids.
I found out by the way that it's, let me see, I put it in my notes.
It was Mrs. Crawford had taken care of her and she had the kids, the five kids.
One of them was named Basil.
He was the one that made up Mary, Mary, quite contrary, or one of the kids of that family.
And he made fun of her for not knowing where her home was or where her uncle lived and
all that stuff, which is in England.
And oh yeah, I noticed too the train conductor, I think, and Medlock have, not a cockney accent,
a Hertfordshire, a Yorkshire accent.
That's where they have Yorkshire accent.
So I guess that's the area they're in.
So that's kind of interesting detail.
If you know England or if you know these kinds of books that are set in these places like
Pride and Prejudice and such, you're more familiar with that.
And yeah, it's just kind of texturing the setting.
So we have a good picture of the setting and of how much unhappy, how much more unhappy
Mary is in the setting.
And again, we'll have to see what happens.
So I'm interested, I'm genuinely engaged and I want to know what exactly happens to
this girl and how she gets transformed and how the place gets transformed around her
as well.
So let me know what you thought about this chapter.
I hope you enjoyed that.
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Until next time, keep reading, be well, and do good things.
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