(Half a) Story Hour - Episode 4
Episode 4, “The Secret Garden: We Keep Reading Chapter Two”
In this episode, we continue Chapter Two of The Secret Garden. Mary finds out that she’s going “back” to England to live with her uncle, whose housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock, meets her in London – and lets slip some mysterious hints about Mary’s new home…
Tough stuff in this episode: cholera, the British Empire, death, teasing
⭐️ Bonus ⭐️
Follow along here: The Secret Garden at Project Gutenberg Online
(Inter)active reading suggestion: Ask our last big questions, FOR NOW… and start to visualise more with our mind’s eye! 🧠
*Bonus, bonus activity: Can you draw Mrs. Medlock from the description in the story? (Hint: when Mary is describing the housekeeper in her mind, she thinks about how Mrs. Medlock’s face is bright red from sun or hard work. Why might Mary look down on this in “common” Mrs. Medlock?)
For teachers: Students can make a table for their questions (today’s and ones from previous episodes) that explains whether the question has been answered in the book yet, or not – like this:
✏️ 💭
Musical interlude: “The Elephant” from Le Carnaval des animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns
Other Stuff…
“Elephants 101”* from National Geographic: learn a little more about these amazing animals…
*(101 is from first-year university course codes - meaning you learn the basics!)
Easter 🪺: It was halfway through this episode that I worked out how I really wanted to master (that’s how you make something sound okay after it’s recorded) the show, and another, like, four episodes before I got my actual recording process down… it should start sounding better from here on! Welcome to radio, where we learn on the fly…! 📻