Summary
Evie reluctantly moves with her widowed father to Beaumont, New York, where he has bought an apple orchard, dismissing rumors that the town is cursed and the trees haven't borne fruit in decades. Evie doesn't believe in things like curses and fairy tales anymore--if fairy tales were real, her mom would still be alive. But odd things happen in Beaumont. Evie meets a boy who claims to be dead and receives a mysterious seed as an eleventh-birthday gift. Once planted, the seed grows into a treeovernight, but only Evie and the dead boy can see it--or go where it leads.
The Garden of Eve mixes spine-tingling chills with a deeply resonating story that beautifully explores grief, healing, and growth.
Author Notes
K. L. GOING is the author of Fat Kid Rules the World , a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Saint Iggy; and The Liberation of Gabriel King. She lives and writes full-time in Glen Spey, New York.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-After losing her mother to cancer, Evie Adler, nearly 11, moves with her father from Michigan to a seemingly "cursed" apple orchard in bleak Beaumont, NY. Evie's belief in magic, the imaginative streak she once shared with her mom, has waned. Practical and rational Father throws himself into his work to bring the orchard back to life. Evie makes friends with ghostly pale "Alex," who loiters in the cemetery near her home and bears a strong resemblance to a recently deceased local boy. Elderly Maggie inserts herself into the Adlers' lives, offering warmth and a strange birthday present from her brother, the orchard's deceased former owner. It's a single seed with magic that only the children can sense. Planting the seed, Evie and Alex enter a lush, flip-side version of Beaumont where they can control life-but at what cost? This is a poignant tale with endearing characters (especially the resilient, likable Evie and stubborn but charming Alex), well-drawn settings, and surprising plot twists. While allusions to the Garden of Eden are present, the story is not overtly religious, presenting the powers of love and belief-whether in oneself, other people, or something that can't be rationalized. The theme of death is inescapable but the ending offers readers a sense of healing. In her fantastical setting, Going realistically portrays the different ways that people grieve and the emotions accompanying loss.-Danielle Serra, Cliffside Park Public Library, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Feeling bereft 10 months after her mother's death, 11-year-old Evie Adler is even sadder when her father uproots the two of them from Michigan and buys a dead apple orchard in Beaumont, N.Y. The town is colorless and cold and "there didn't seem to be any life at all. Even the crows had stopped flying overhead." Evie's only playmate is Alex, the ghost of a 10-year-old boy whose death the town still mourns and who frequents the cemetery next door to the orchard. Her dad, meanwhile, has no luck in the orchard, which people claim is cursed. The former owner, a stranger, has bequeathed Evie a small seed, which his sister says might have been from the Garden of Eden, and might have played a part in the disappearance of another sibling. Evie plants the seed and hopes it will transport her to a magical garden where her mother will be waiting. What works best in Going's (Fat Kid Rules the World) novel is the skillful depiction of Evie's grief for her mother and the wonderful life they shared. What complicates the story and makes it confusing is the odd combination of magic and religious symbols (for example, the ghost Alex turns out to be a twin brother named Adam; the seed instantaneously sprouts into a fruit-bearing tree). The emotional ending, with a surprising twist, ties the story together, but seems contrived. Ages 8-12. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate) Still deep in mourning for her mother, who died ten months before, Evie and her father move from Michigan to rural New York. He has bought a house and apple orchard but neglected to mention that it's beside a cemetery, and that the orchard, with its black, twisted trees, is considered by the townsfolk to be cursed. Evie quickly makes two friends: elderly Maggie, who grew up in the house, and a mysterious boy who claims, despite Evie's skepticism, to be Alex, a boy who died the week before and is buried in the graveyard. Strangely, Maggie's late brother has left Evie a birthday present -- a seed, which may have come from the Garden of Eden. Evie discovers that she has her own role to play in the events that unfold, and finds too that her relationship with her father changes as they learn how to move on with their new life together. Believably and with delicacy, Going paints a suspenseful story suffused with the poignant questions of what it means to be alive, and what might await on the other side -- questions that neither the children nor the adults can answer with certainty, even at the end. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
It's been ten months since her mother died, and Evie feels the loss every single day. Having moved into an old house rumored to be cursed doesn't help matters any, but at least Evie is distracted from her father's withdrawal by the strange residents of their new town. There's Alex, a boy that lingers in the cemetery claiming to be a ghost, and Maggie, a shopkeeper who presents Evie with the gift of a single seed. Evie becomes convinced that the seed hails from the original Garden of Eden, and decides to use it to find her mother. Instead, she learns almost too late that unnatural life can be a far more terrible and destructive thing than natural grief. The book is most effective when it seeks to understand and clarify Evie's pain. Unfortunately, it loses ground when, instead of concentrating on a single fantastical element, Going creates an uncomfortable mlange of ghosts, magic and the Book of Genesis. The emotions may be sound, but the story demands a tighter focus on the otherworldly. (Fantasy. 9-13) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After she and her dad move to upstate New York to reclaim an old, decaying orchard, Evie understands that her father is trying to escape her mother's recent death. She finds herself beginning to believe the legend that the barren orchard and its surrounding town are cursed after another girl named Eve disappeared many years earlier. Her sense of supernatural and real worlds colliding feels especially strong after she meets the sad ghost-child Alex, who had been buried in the small cemetery adjacent to their house just days before. An eleventh-birthday letter from her mother and a small stone box containing a single seed force Evie and her dad to come to grips with their new life and its possibilities. Symbolism abounds in this beautifully written book life, death, the tree of life, Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden are all alluded to and explored. Although challenging for its intended audience, the story offers hope to those readers who will identify with Evie, Alex, and the adults who love them.--Bradburn, Frances Copyright 2007 Booklist
