{"product_id":"the-humming-room-a-novel-inspired-by-the-secret-garden","title":"The Humming Room: A Novel Inspired by the Secret Garden","description":"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\u0026amp;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","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44831284920373,"sku":"ByrdShop_0312644388","price":59.39,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/ByrdShop_0312644388.jpg?v=1764758228","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-humming-room-a-novel-inspired-by-the-secret-garden","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}