I just found a blog post on it! And I DO remember it! And now I want it back desperately.

I remember Trudy's cries of delight back in NY when she realized I had it.

I like Secret Garden much better than Little Princess. Little Princess was OK, but the plucky tireless little girl who found a way to be happy in the midst of all problems could get old quickly. Mary Lennox from Secret Garden cried and threw tantrums and seemed much more like a real girl.

I would use poetry.

"Come live with me and be my love."

Or Andrew Marvell "If We Had But World Enough and Time"

Also, any scene with Iago in Othello.

Also The Secret Garden has Dickon. I loves me some Dickon.

I like The Secret Garden very much (except for the way Mary just disappears at the very end, and I love the musical for rectifying that), but Little Princess will always be my go-to comfort book. And Sara does in fact get despairing and rageful and completely lose her shit at one point, so she's not 100% undiluted pluck.

And I love the ending -- unlike either of the Hollywood film versions, in the book she finds a happy ending without having all the horrible things she went through deus-ex-machina'd away. Of everything she suffered, the worst part was that her beloved father had died. And, in the end, he's still dead, and always will be. She's warm and safe and loved and happy again, but it is a different happiness than she had before, a happiness that encompasses that loss.

I seriously loathe the movies, whose message seems to be that if you're plucky and brave and endure, eventually all the terrible things that happened to you will un-happen. Fuck that lie.

Of everything she suffered, the worst part was that her beloved father had died. And, in the end, he's still dead, and always will be.

So much this. I was astounded when I saw the Shirley Temple version, even though I was still a kid at the time (or at most an early teen). I was all, "That's not what happened!"

(except for the way Mary just disappears at the very end, and I love the musical for rectifying that)

Plus, you gt Mandy Patinkin saying "And. THIS. IS. YOUR. GAAAARRRRDEEEEN." But it still makes me cry every time.

Wasn't there also a Hallmark Hall of Fame Secret Garden that had Dickon going off to war and Mary pining for him?

Wasn't there also a Hallmark Hall of Fame Secret Garden that had Dickon going off to war and Mary pining for him?

Yeah. I think that one made it that Mary and Colin weren't cousins, and they ended up getting together at the end, after he came home from WWI.

Oooh, so io9 posted the first chapter of Blackout! Been tearing your hair out since Deadline ? Here you go.

But wait, there's more!! If you go to five blogs (including Seanan's) and solve a few puzzles, you can unlock another excerpt. Fun times! I've already read the damn thing, and I'm still excited about this shit.

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I was shocked at the difference between the book and the movie too: Little Princess. I liked the book WAY better because it seemed realistic. And the little girls were really hateful.

I have not read it since I was a kid, but I dug it.