Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.
As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.
Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret.
When Roo Fanshaw's parents mysteriously are murdered, Roo is sent to go live with the uncle she never knew she had. Roo is now stuck on an island called Cough Rock, and finds her new home filled with adventure.
I have not really read remade classics into books, although a remake of some more American literature classics would be nice, I found this middle grade novel being a remake of the classic novel The Secret Garden to be wonderful. What is really capturing is the development of Roo's character, the character is what really draws the reader, and I like how it's filled with so much originality and not filled with the same thing you find in most young adult novels. I highly recommend for those who liked The Secret Garden.
