The Humming Room: A Novel Inspired by the Secret Garden

About this book

Hiding is Roo Fanshaws special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family she often needs to disappear at a moments notice. When her parents are murdered its 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 doesnt 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 uncles assistants Roo discovers the houses hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret. Inspired by The Secret Garden this tale full of unusual characters and mysterious secrets is a story that only Ellen Potter could write. Read the Q&A with Ellen Potter from Publishers Weekly on writing a novel inspired by The Secret Garden By Sally Lodge Jan 12 2011 In 2003 Ellen Potter made a lively splash onto the scene with her middle-grade novel Olivia Kidney. She went on to write three sequels about that enchantingly quirky heroine as well as two other novels Slob and The Kneebone Boy. Most recently the author tapped into memories of her own childhood reading to pen The Humming Room a novel inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnetts The Secret Garden. Set in a mansion-a former childrens tuberculosis sanitarium-on an island in the St. Lawrence River the story centers on Roo a prickly orphan who goes to live with her aloof uncle and befriends Phillip his troubled son and Jack a local boy. Potter talks about how this novel took shape. Is it safe to assume that The Secret Garden was an important book to you as a child? Obviously I loved the novel as a kid. What really struck me was that when I went back to read it as an adult the story not only held up but I discovered elements in it I had never noticed before. It felt very fresh and surprisingly layered in a way I hadnt realized as a child. Was that an unusual reaction for you to have to a book you revisit from your childhood? Ellen Potter. Photo: Shai Enav. Yes very unusual for me. A lot of times when I go back to books I loved when I was young I dont quite understand what it was that I loved about them. Rereading The Secret Garden Ifelt a lot like Mary feels when she visits her garden. Shes always finding something new popping up-something delightful or surprising. Ive reread The Secret Garden every year as an adult. I have a battered copy on my bookshelf-its really quite a mess! The experience of reading the novel keeps deepening for me. How did you tackle the actual writing of The Humming Room? The idea of writing a contemporary version of The Secret Garden was very exciting to me yet at the same time it was very very intimidating. I knew I needed to follow the original story line-or that I wanted to-but I knew I had to make it different enough that it would be worthwhile for people to read my novel. My editor Jean Feiwel was great and kept encouraging me to have at it to go anywhere that I felt I had to go with it. Did you set parameters for yourself in terms of working within Burnetts original storyline? I actually kept trying to swerve away from the original story but it wasnt easy. Theres something about The Secret Garden that kept me rooted in the original storyline which was difficult for me. I dont plot my novels-I move along with my characters. For the first time I had a story already set out for me which was very challenging. Would you say that you heard Burnetts voice in your head as you wrote? Yes. I feel I know The Secret Garden so well that I could kind of riff on it like a jazz musician. I know it in my core and could take the essence and work with that. Still I love the original novel so much that it was psychologically a very tough book to write. Though I think whenever I finish a book I always say its the hardest thing Ive ever written! You obviously did branch out from the original with the setting to begin with. Why choose an island on the St. Lawrence? I went back and forth on the setting actually. At first I thought of perhaps setting it in New York City but that didnt work. At the time I began writing the novel I was living in the Thousand Islands and was spending a lot of time on the St. Lawrence. The river is so very beautiful and it struck me as similar in some ways to the moor in The Secret Garden. Similar in what ways? The St. Lawrence seems a vast expanse of gray the way the moor is a vast expanse of purple. But if you stop and look closely at the river its incredibly changeable and moody-and sometimes violent. But its always surprising. And it occurred to me that this would be a perfect setting for The Humming Room. On top of that