The Garden Behind The Moon

Rating:
Summary: I liked this book because it was very magical and exciting.
Review: Every night in the fishing village where he lives eleven-year-old David, a moon calf, sits alone by the shore watching the path of light that stretches across the sea until it almost touches the moon. Wondering where it goes, he decides to talk to Hans Krout, the cobbler, about it and learns that the cobbler has been out on the moon path himself. That same night Hans takes him to the shore and ties to teach him how to cross but David gets scared and falls into the water. Then one day he hears the voice of the Moon Angel down by the shore. Moon Angel makes people happy when they're sad, but he also takes something away from them. He tells David that he, Moon Angel, is the Master Cobbler, and David should have Hans bring him to the moon path again. That same night Hans and David make another trip down to the moon path, and this time David crosses it. Once he's on the other side he discovers that the path leads to a magical world behind the moon where David's adventure begins.

When he enters the magical world, the first thing he discovers is the Moon House where the Man in the Moon lives. It's dark and quiet, and every time David looks out a window, he sees something different. A few days later he discovers the Moon Garden. It's a peaceful place with a lot of children living in it. The children begin talking and playing with David, and they don't make fun of him like the children in the village where he lives, because they're all moon calves too. He leaves the Moon Garden, but the Man in the Moon decides that David will be allowed to go there for three days every month. During one of his visits he meets a girl named Phyllis, and they start to become really good friends. They do everything together. But five months later, the guardian of the children tells David that he can't come to the Moon Garden again because he will soon be 12 years old. Children can't live there once they're 12 years old because they have to learn how to become a grown man or woman. She also tells him that Phyllis is a princess, and that he was really sent there to find the Wonder Box and the Know All Book in order to bring them back to the brown earth again. The guardian says he must first battle a giant and then see an old woman in a red petticoat, who will tell him what to do next. Then while in the Moon House one day, David sees the Moon Angel, and passes behind him.

Now David finds himself on the shore of the sea ten years in the future as a grown man. He goes to the old woman's cottage and learns that Adam and Eve lived in the Moon Garden, where the Moon Angel gave them the Wonder Box. He told them that it held the greatest joy in the world, the Know All Book, but not to open the box because, if they do, sorrow will come upon them. However, a few days later they opened it and end up captives of the Iron Giant in his Iron Castle. In order for David to find the Wonder Box and the Know All Book, he'll have to travel to the Iron Castle too, but he'll have to outsmart the giant in order to succeed. Will David win the battle, and get the Wonder Box and the Know All Book back to the brown earth?

I liked this book because it was very magical and exciting. If I had been David, I would have been sad to leave the Moon Garden, and scared to battle the giant. If you enjoy reading books about magical places, THE GARDEN BEHIND THE MOON is an excellent choice!

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Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written
Review: I fell in love with this book as a child and have re-read it as an adult. It hasn't lost it's charm! The review below is very critical, but one must understand the time period of the writing. The story is dreamy and fantastical, which is what makes the book such a pleasure to read over and over again. Recommended for all age groups.

Rating:
Summary: a disappointment if you love Pyle's Robin Hood
Review: I've always loved Pyle's The Merrie Adventures of Robin Hood and was disappointed in how inferior this book is. [...]BR> I have one major and several minor objections. The big one is the (typically Victorian?) view he presents of Death as good and kind. It appears from the dedication that he was trying to comfort himself for the death of a young son, but I still think death needs to be recognized as an enemy.
Minor annoyances include the disjointedness of the plot until halfway through, the simplistic, portentous language (with repitition of such phrases as "this is not nonsense after all"), and addressing the reader as "little child". (I'm middle-aged and find this last merely annoying - an older child would probably hate it.)
There are some good things - the idea that seemingly foolish, dreamy people may be wiser than more businesslike ones, the lyrical beauty of some passages, the fairy tale that comprises the second half, and the plot twist at the end. In one place he may even be adapting the Highland legend of the washer woman foretelling disaster in battle to a totally new use, which would be cool - then again it may be a co-incidence.
African American readers may object to a rather patronizing but well-meant story about a slave woman, who is repeatedly called a "poor black woman". He does describe the horrors of the slave trade (though not too graphically for children over 7 or so) if you can stand the syrup.
Extreme romantics may like this book, but I didn't much. It's gloppy.