Beautiful Garden, A

A beautiful garden charts the magical experience of one little Australian girl – Megan, also 10 – who has lost her mum in a scuba diving accident. Megan’s sadness is heightened by the fact that her mum’s body has not yet been buried, and so there is no grave where she can put gifts and flowers to remember her. Megan and her dad watch others placing gifts for their loved ones in what she calls the “beautiful garden” (a cemetery), and Megan wishes she could do the same. What is more, since the day of the tragedy was also her mum’s birthday, Megan had not been able to give her mum the surprise gift of a pearl necklace, and now carries this gift wherever she goes. One day, as Megan and her dad are on the beach, Megan falls asleep, and in a dream, a magical dolphin appears to take Megan far below the waves, to the most beautiful garden she has ever seen – a coral reef. BOOK EXTRACT: “What an explosion of color! There was row after row of blue and green coral, five-fingered starfish, spiny orange sea urchins, and tall yellow sponges; it stretched for miles and miles. Bright multi-colored fish, some of them giving off a luminous glow, darted here and there.” Near the reef, Megan spots an ancient shipwreck, and a gigantic oyster with a wide open mouth and she decides the oyster’s mouth is the perfect place to leave her pearl necklace in memory of mum. Waking from the dream, she is no longer as sad. Later that month, she is at last able to place the necklace on mum’s grave in the beautiful garden cemetery. One day, as Megan and her dad are on the beach, Megan falls asleep, and in a dream, a magical dolphin appears to take Megan far below the waves, to the most beautiful garden she has ever seen – a coral reef.

Categories

Products » Childrens Books » Fiction