I have chosen to read a book by Philippa Pearce called Tom’s Midnight Garden. It was illustrated by Susan Einzig. The book was first published by Oxford University Press in 1958 in London and later by the Penguin Group and Puffin Books in 1976 in London.

The main character in the story is named Tom. He is about twelve years old. Tom is a boy who loves to be outside and play in the garden. His best friend is his brother Peter.

The story takes place near Castleford in England in the middle of the last century.

It started with that Tom’s brother, Peter, got the measles. Tom had to go in quarantine to Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen who lived in a big house now converted into flats. The first thing Tom noticed when he arrived in the house was a big grandfather clock which stood in the hall. Tom wanted to touch the clock but Aunt Gwen said that it belonged to Mrs Bartholomew upstairs.  Tom had to stay in the flat all day because of the quarantine, but he was a restless boy and wanted to go out to play. In the nights he wasn’t tired, but Uncle Alan told him to sleep for ten hours from nine o’clock at night to seven in the morning.

One night when Tom lay down in bed to sleep, he heard the grandfather clock strike thirteen. The real time was one o’clock, but Tom was sure he had heard the clock strike thirteen. He got curious. What could this be? He got out of bed in silence and went downstairs to see what happened. The hall was filled with old stuffs in the same style as the grandfather clock. It was dark so he couldn’t see details, but he saw a door in the end of the hall. Tom hadn’t noticed it when he arrived yesterday. He opened it and saw out. There it was a huge garden with a lot of flowers, trees and bushes. It was wonderful! But something was wrong. Why hadn’t his aunt and uncle told him about this beautiful garden?

Next day Tom went down to see the garden. When he opened the door he was surprised the garden wasn’t there anymore. He found out that the garden was only visible in the thirteenth hour. Tom spent every night in this garden to try to resolve the mystery about the garden and of time…  

I think this book was a good book because it was exciting to read about Tom who discovered the beautiful garden and the mystery of time. It was a little hard to read in the beginning but when you’ve got started its okay. I recommend this book to persons who like mysteries.