Sarah Singleton’s The Poison Garden has something that, occasionally, feels rare in young adult literature: children who behave much like children really do.  Thomas, and, to a lesser extent, Maud, both seem to be first and foremost children.  They get frightened and want help. They are curious but also distractable.  They love playing games of make-believe.  They bond in their youth and loneliness. Instead of making her characters proto-adults, Singleton allows these traits of childhood (and some of the angst and despair of early adolescence) to propel the plot.

In addition, Singleton does not allow more minor characters to languish in obscurity. Although Thomas is the central character and the main focus of the book, Maud, his friend, has a delicate force and power all of her own, and the wholeness of her character (and all of the minor and surrounding characters in the book) makes the story come alive. Thomas, a little older and more suspicious than Maud, reacts to all of the strange situations he finds himself in with bravery, but they both (as many children their age would) look to those around them for support.  Although much of that support is questionable (and possibly deadly), the children learn quickly to keep their eyes open and watch the ever shifting alliances of those who guard the gardens.

The story begins with a funeral, a will, and a gift. Thomas’ grandmother has died, and the family has gathered around her grave to say farewell. Thomas, a very observant young man, shows in this small moment the bravery and intelligence that serve him well for the rest of the novel:

Thomas looked away, his attention snagged on the hawthorn hedge beyond the wall. He could see a shadow beneath the leaves and may blossom.

This piece of darkness, of indefinable shape, stuck out a black-gloved hand, flexed long fingers – and waved.

He looked again. The mysterious hand disappeared. He wanted to run over and find out to whom the hand belonged – and why this person was hiding. But propriety held him in place. The mystery niggled, an itch he wanted to scratch.

Thomas leaves the funeral saddened but curious.  Later, he discovers he also has two gifts from his grandmother: a (very important) small wooden box and, when he turns fourteen, an apprenticeship in London. A mysterious meeting with a tall stranger that evening begins the adventure that will absorb the next five years of Thomas’ life. Using the box, and under the stranger’s careful eye, Thomas travels to his grandmother’s secret garden. It is filled with plants larger and more potent than any found in the normal, everyday world. There are mysterious paths and intriguing landscapes–all to the delight of the young boy. But danger lurks in the garden, and even the creators do not completely understand the power that they wield.

Singleton does an excellent job making the gardens places worthy of investigation.  They are both attractive and repulsive, protective and dangerous, creative and destructive. The Poison Garden is lovely, delicate, and thrilling – much like the garden found within its pages.

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