The Night Gardener

The Night Gardener, Jonathan Auxier, 350 pages

Fourteen-year-old Molly and her younger brother Kip are refugees from the Irish Potato Famine, searching for a place to stay and a job. They come to the Windsor estate, where the family lives overshadowed by a massive tree growing up against (and indeed, into) the house, and at first think they are saved. But all Molly’s creative storytelling can’t conceal that something goes bump in the night and that the family is growing weaker and paler by the day.

Auxier winds a terrifying yarn about wishes (is what we wish for really best for us?), storytelling (what is the difference between a story and a lie?), and a massive, sinister tree. It’s an impressive book – I love tales where each thread of plot comes back and is neatly tied off at the end. Some historical details might prompt questions or further research (the famine is only mentioned, and there is a doctor who spouts some nasty Victorian-era anti-Irish rhetoric which could use more contextualizing), and parts of the climax rely a bit too heavily on violent imagery, but The Night Gardener is, all in all, a spooky, well-crafted piece of children’s literature.