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.

ERROR (0-42): You have entered invalid password(s). Please correct the fields below and resubmit. If you do not submit a valid result within two minutes, a clean-up team will be dispatched to your location.

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.

Oh and I was like (at age 9 or 10), referring to the movie: "how is this a happy ending when he doesn't even remember who she is?"

I was perplexed.

The Ten Grumpiest Living Writers. Guess who's first? No, really, just guess.

I was expecting Alan Moore.

HA - I totally called Maurice Sendak!