Many students ask me for "scary stories" or "creepy stories." Some students like to be scared "just a little," while others long for "really scary." For me, The Night Gardener was a perfect mix of great storytelling, mystery, and spine-tingling suspense. Molly and Kip are two Irish children who traveled across the sea with their parents from Ireland to England in search of a better life. The Author's Note explains that between 1845-1852, about a million Irish people died of starvation and disease during a time called The Great Famine, and were forced to travel to England and North America. While the story does not explain too much about this part of history, Molly and Kip were fictional children living during this time period, and during their travels they are separated from their parents.
They are promised work as servants at a place called The Windsor Estate, but they become very suspicious and fearful of this place when no one will give them directions. As they ride their horse and cart through the village, everyone tells them "they are riding to their deaths" and to turn around and go home. The only person who will point them in the right direction is an old lady that Kip thinks is a witch, and she only agrees to direct them there if they come back and tell her a story about the old Windsor Estate, for she is a storyteller in need of some fresh material. She explains that every person who enters the sourwoods leading to the estate changes people, and "brings out something horrible in them." Upon seeing them again, she tells them that when Master Windsor was just a boy and lived in this house, a terrible storm drove him from the house into the village wearing only his nightclothes and bare feet, fearfully saying something evil was after him. The people searched the house and found no traces of the boy's family. It was as if they had vanished. The storyteller goes on to say that many families have been drawn to live in the house, even though their intuition tells them to stay away. Molly wonders if this story is true, because if this tragedy had truly happened, why would Master Windsor come back there?
When Kip and Molly finally arrive at the house, it appears to be run down as if it were vacant for many years. The lawn is full of weeds and ivy covers the house, and an enormous tree was growing so close to the house that it appears the two have grown together. And once inside, the children realize that parts of the tree have grown through the walls of the house as if it has surrounded it. The children first meet a sweet girl named Penny who is excited to meet Molly and Kip, and loves the stories that Molly tells her. But her mother Constance is very unhappy to see the children, and tells them that her husband had no right to hire them and that they were not welcome. Her personality is very cold and unfriendly, but Molly and Kip are so desperate for a place to stay that they tell her they will work only for room and board. She agrees. Penny and her brother Alistair, as well as Constance and her husband Master Bertrand Windsor, are all sickly looking and appear to have had the life sucked out of them. None of them sleep well, and are haunted by nightmares.
Molly and Kip feel there is a creepy presence in the home, and when Kip tells Molly that he saw a tall dark man wearing a top hat roaming the grounds one night and then entered the house, Molly isn't sure if she should believe him. That is until a few nights later, when she finds his top hat and traces of his muddy footprints in her room. There is a secret room that Constance tells the children to stay away from, and when Molly finds it unlocked one day and ventures inside, she can't believe what she finds.
The characters in the story are very well developed, and the suspense builds the more the children learn about the history and mystery of the Windsor Estate. I highly recommend this story to any reader who enjoys stories full of ghosts, curses, and mystery. There is not too much blood, gore or violence like in some horror stories, but the creepy setting and the evil presence of the Night Gardener makes this story as memorable and scary as any haunted story or dark fairy tale I have read in a long time.
Recommended for Grades 5+.
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