The Secret Garden

This novel would appeal to Canadian readers because

it is a novel for every age group. Once you read the first sentence you won't be able to put it down. It is an interesting novel that talks about the experiences of first loves and learning how to deal with past experiences

and not letting them affect your present life. It brings you into the life of Gwen as if you were in her shoes and feeling the way she feels about herself about everyone. Once you are in Gwens shoes

it is hard to come back to reality.

Gwen is clearly a lonely woman, never having experienced love of any sort. Throughout the story, Gwen longs for human contact: emotional and physical. Her mother\'s perfection planted the seeds for Gwen\'s feelings of inadequacy and isolation from girlhood. \"My mother was beautiful. I was always plain. \'How could I have produced such a creature?\' she said more than once. Some days she locked me outside because she couldn\'t bear to look at me. I played in the gardens, among the flowers of white and blue - the same colors my mother liked to wear. I would chase after her in the house sometimes, anxious when she left a room without me.\" I picked this quote because it shows how much Gwen wanted to be appreciated, loved and accepted by her mother. This has caused her to keep her feelings and all her emotions in causing her to never express feelings of love or intimacy.