Common Sense Media Review
By Jan Carr
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Mysterious gardener brightens gray town in magical story.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 4+?
Any Positive Content?
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Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In THE NIGHT GARDENER, William looks out the window of his orphanage at the grim, gray world and sees that, overnight, someone has clipped a tree to create a topiary sculpture of an owl. The next day, another topiary animal appears, and then more appear. The gray town brightens, the people celebrate, and when William spies the mysterious gardener, he follows him into the park and helps him clip more trees into fanciful shapes. The next morning, the gardener has vanished, but he's left a pair of shears for William as a present. Fall and winter come, stripping the trees of their leaves, and the gardener disappears form the town. But a bright, colorful spread of the town in spring makes it clear that "the people of the small town were never the same. And neither was William" -- who's pictured continuing the gardener's important work.
Is It Any Good?
In a lovely, generous-spirited book about the transformative power of art, a depressed town is changed forever after it's visited by a mysterious gardener who clips the trees into topiary animals. This debut picture book by two Canadian brothers who worked together on both art and story is spectacularly illustrated. Set on Grimloch Lane in an unspecified time with monotone period detail that evokes Dorothea Lange's black-and-white photographs from the Great Depression, we see cracks in the sidewalks, old tires littering overgrown yards, splintering fences, and people who are hunched and cheerless. But once the gardener clips the trees into topiary animals, color arrives and, with it, wonder, industry, and whimsy. The people paint their houses, fix their roofs, fly kites, have picnics, and are even inspired to hang Chinese lanterns by the topiary of the dragon. It's a gentle, magical tale of hope and cheer.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about topiaries. Have you ever seen one? How are they made?
Why are some of the pictures without color and others in full color? What's happening in the pictures with color?
Does the art make the story look like it takes place now or in the past? What clues can you find?
Book Details
- Authors :
- Illustrators : Terry Fan , Eric Fan
- Genre : Picture Book
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic )
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
- Publication date : February 23, 2016
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 4 - 8
- Number of pages : 48
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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