I’m pretty sure that I wrote the following review when I was in fourth grade. There will probably be some grammatical errors as what I am posting is the original that I wrote in fourth grade, I think. The following is part 1 of a review of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

         Mary woke up one night from the pouring rain pelting down. No matter what she did, she could not get back to sleep. She kept hearing all these noises. There were gusts of wind rushing all around the house. After about an hour of tossing and turning, Mary heard a crying noise that she had heard before. She sat up in bed, and decided to explore.
        The crying noise was coming from down the corridor. There was a passage, with a tapestry covering. Mary had seen Mrs. Medlock coming out of this passageway before, when she was exploring the house. She noticed a glimmer of light coming from under the door. She heard that the crying noise was coming from behind that door.
        Mary went into the room and saw a very thin you boy who was laying in a big four poster bed. He didn’t seem to be in pain. He seemed angry. He looked at her and asked who she was. When she told him she was Mary Lennox and that Mr. Craven was her uncle, he said, well, I’m Colin Craven, and he’s my father! Mary said that she didn’t even know that her uncle even had a child. Colin told her that the reason no one told her, was that he never wanted anyone to see him.
        Mary wondered why he didn’t want anyone to see him. He told her that he was always sick, and that if he didn’t die soon, that he would become hunchbacked. Even his father didn’t want to see him, because when he was born, his mother died. Colin overheard people saying that his father hates him because of that.
       Colin kept staring at Mary and making her feel uncomfortable. She asked him why he was doing that. He said because she seemed unreal, like a dream. He wanted to hear all about Mary. They both told about themselves. Colin said that all the servants have to do whatever he says, if they don’t, he will get angry and then get sick. Besides, everyone believes that he will die soon.
       I think it is horrible that Colin stays locked up in his room all the time. He never wants to go outside, he says that he doesn’t even like fresh air. It makes me happy that Mary finally found him. Now they have someone their own age that they can talk to. Maybe Mary can talk Colin into leaving his room and going outside. I think if he started to move around and get fresh air and see and talk to people, maybe he wouldn’t get sick so much. Maybe he needs to start telling himself and others that he’s not so sick and that he’s not going to die, and maybe he will start to get healthy.