Rating: 3/5
Tom was going to spend the holidays with his brother Peter, and they had planned everything about it. But could anything be worse than Peter catching the measles? And to add on to troubles, Tom had not had them yet, and his parents were worried that he would catch them, so he was sent away for as long as they thought was good for him at his uncle and aunt’s.
When he gets into the flat, the first thing he sees is Mrs Bartholomew’s grandfather clock. It strikes at the wrong hour, perhaps donging three times when it is four, and seven times when it is nine; but its hands are always pointing at the correct time. Anyhow that it strikes, though, it has not yet struck thirteen.
Thirteen..thirteen. No clock, whether it is broken like Mrs Bartholomew’s or not, has ever struck thirteen. To find out, Tom explores downstairs, and finds a large, beautiful garden. But in the day time, the garden is not there. So every night, on the thirteenth strike of the clock, Tom quietly goes downstairs, and finds the garden. And every time, peculiar things happen…
***Update October 2017***
This is the second time I’ve read this book, and this time I think I understood it a little better. I like how it goes into how Time works, and the connection of Hatty and Tom’s dreams as Hatty remembers and Tom joins her. Now that I understood it a little more, I would give it maybe a 4 star rating.