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This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer.

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Find all my work at MJMunoz.com

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Prepare yourself for some off the cuff book talk as I tackle another middle grade book

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chapter by chapter.

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Secret Garden Chapter 7 was really interesting and I mentioned this in my short about it.

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I find it really interesting how skillful the author is at weaving narrative with, weaving

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narrative progression with, I guess you could say character progression.

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And what I mean by that is not a lot happens plot wise.

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Mary Lennox finds the key into the secret garden and that's kind of it.

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She interacts with the weatherman, I think is the name of the old groundskeeper and the

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robin and finally she finds the key buried and when she does that she digs it up and

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she messes with it and well really she's doing it.

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She finds the key and then we don't know what happens next.

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We can assume that she's going to try to open that door or maybe show the key to somebody.

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I don't know.

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I guess she has to find the door first is the real truth isn't it?

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But none of that really plays into it because she finds the key and then it kind of stops.

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So that's interesting.

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And what happens instead is that in the run up to her finding the key it's almost like

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she has this mini character arc and this emotional growth that sort of enables her to find the

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key like the narrative isn't okay with her finding the key until she goes through this

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transformation that we get to see as an audience.

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And she has this really interesting conversation with Martha and they talk about whether or

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not Mary actually likes herself and whether she expects other people to like her.

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And when she comes to the realization that she's been pretty shabby let's say she's been

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a pretty shabby person she realizes that probably not a lot of people like her and Martha kind

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of reassures her that hey you know if you can learn to like yourself and if you can

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learn to love yourself sort of then you will probably see a lot of these issues that you're

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having clear up and in fact it gets to the point where she basically says you probably

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don't like other people very much because you don't like yourself very much and she

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doesn't say projecting but you know perhaps you're projecting onto others the disdain

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you have for yourself and maybe if you give yourself a little bit of a break and you learn

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to like yourself you can also learn to like others and open up to them.

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And I found that to be a very interesting concept and I was very surprised that it went

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there it's kind of a I don't know kind of like a new age self-help kind of thing it

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seems like a very new idea but I guess it's not I mean you know there are sayings like

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there's nothing new under the sun so maybe this self-love or self-like idea runs back

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farther than I know but it's interesting to see it framed here in that way and I don't

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quite know what to do with that other than I do think it's interesting that when Mary

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is having these interactions with these people outside of herself it's helping her to recontextualize

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how she sees them how she values them how she kind of values herself she values herself

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less than she did before but she's also a more worthwhile person I think she feels more

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worthwhile she feels healthier better stronger she's growing I'm sure she's seeing growth

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in herself and she appreciates that but at the same time there's experiences that experiences

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she's going through are helping her to understand appreciate and approach people other people

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outside of herself people who are beneath her as not so much be there but as you know

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kind of in a different station and she hasn't reached that full level of maturity yet but

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at least she has a liking for them as opposed to just a expectation that they will bend

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to her will which is not great I mean it's a great progression but it's not great how

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she had felt at one point so that's really interesting to me and I find it interesting

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that sorry her name is really hard for me to remember Hodgson Burnett's Francis Hodgson

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Burnett's it's really surprising me that Burnett is like tying the plot progression to like

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the emotional growth and the emotional progression of Mary that's how it feels to me and it feels

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a little mechanical and dry to say it like that but I think if you think about the book

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that is kind of what's going on as she's opening up as a person as her heart is softening as

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her heart is opening as her mind is opening to these other people these other ideas these

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other ways of being she is being drawn further into the narrative almost as if it's on purpose

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which of course it's this is a fictional book written by an author so it is on purpose but

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almost as if we can see as an audience that as she's making these changes as these transformations

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are happening within her that those things are equipping her to deal with what's going

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to come next in the narrative she mentions that she she loves she says she thinks she

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loves Martha's mother or likes her very much even though she's never seen her or met her

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or spoken to her and she says the same thing of Dickon and Martha kind of has a funny reaction

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to that to you know both of them but she says you know I think you're right about that you

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can like a person without seeing them or knowing them or meeting them and it's because of all

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I've I've told about you or all I've told you about them rather and I thought that was

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kind of an interesting turn and it's just I don't know I'm trying to figure out like

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what is this book about and what's going on here and I as I you know continue through

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it I just I continue to find it more and more fascinating and interesting and I'm really

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curious to see where it goes and how what Mary's being equipped with now is going to

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help her later on in the book because I'm sure it will and I'm curious to see the kind

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of person she's going to turn into and who she'll become through this kind of subdued

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journey that she's on she's on a journey but and it's kind of a journey of self-discovery

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and of growing up but it's not like super explicit it's not like a hero's journey it's

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not a coming-of-age story it's more a becoming aged story I guess I don't know I don't quite

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know how to say that I don't have the full scope of the entire book to say definitively

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what it is one way or another although just a quick note she is 10 by now we know that

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she states that she's 10 years old because supposedly the key for the secret garden that

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she finds at the end was buried 10 years ago and she's she remarks well that's how old

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I am and the key that she found looked like it had been buried for a very long time so

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we're assuming it's the key for the secret garden which of course she still has to find

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although it's interesting or and it is interesting that the robin was instrumental in her finding

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it so it's kind of interesting feels a little fantastic a little magical and I don't know

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if this book defies genre or if it has a little bit of fantasy or if it has a little bit of

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would that be surrealism I don't even know all the different genres but it's definitely

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you know entertaining entertainingism I'd love to know what you thought about the secret

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garden chapter 7 the whole book or the book as a whole or and or the book as a whole and

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yeah I look forward to hearing that I hope you enjoyed that please remember to like share

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subscribe I invite you to comment ask questions and share your thoughts with me it's always

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more fun when you're part of the conversation until next time keep reading be well and do

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good things visit MJMunoz.com for more of my work and help me build up the fortress

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fiction.