Carn
eg
Winn ie
er
1958
Tom’s Midnight Garden
By Philippa Pearce
Talking Points
1 What is the significance of the clock in the book?
Why is time such an important part of the story?
2 Does the book change the way you feel about gardens?
Why is the garden so liberating for Tom?
3 Tom appears invisible to everyone but Hatty, and one other
person. Who is that? Why do you think only he can see Tom?
4 In some ways the book can be seen as a love story. How does
that theme develop through the book?
5 How the river changed in the story from the way Tom sees it at
night-time to the way it is when he visits it with Aunt Gwen?
Although the book was written half a century ago, there’s an
environmental message that seems very modern isn’t there?
6 At the end of the book, Hattie tells Tom ‘…nothing stands still,
except in our memory.’ In what way has Tom changed in the
course of the book?
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Activity:
Clock This!
Can you work out which clock is telling the
correct time?
Tom goes to bed at 10pm. He spends two hours sleeping before
he wakes up and heads for the garden. He spends three and a half
hours chatting with Hatty, forty-five minutes watching the birds, and
another hour and a quarter climbing trees.
When he finally climbs into bed, it takes him another three quarters of
an hour before he falls back to sleep.
Which of these clocks shows the time when Tom falls asleep again?
A
B
C
Turn to the Answers page for the solution.
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Answer
Activity: Clock This
Answer: The correct answer is Clock ‘C’
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