The garden just beyond

Gr 5 Up--Fourteen-year-old Magnolia Gartner generally flies under the radar in her exceptional family. The Gartners, a mixed-race family, including Maggie's siblings Cornelius and Sir Pierce (he was knighted as a toddler) and cousins Bay and Clementine, are the caretakers of a magical garden whose edible plants transform diners' lives. Maggie, who displays some characteristics of a person on the autism spectrum, yearns to make her own dinner and be accepted by her flamboyant family. During a competition to invent a product for the town's shuttered factory, Maggie befriends Graham, her school's "Mr. Everything" who cheerfully admits to having ADHD. Meanwhile, her dinner is a disaster, and Maggie starts to wonder about her family's past and several strangers in her diverse town of Humble Hollow, NJ. Maggie is a sympathetic protagonist whose quiet disposition and wardrobe are delightful, as are her conversations with Graham and her overly perfect relatives. Leavitt floods readers' senses with details of the struggling small town and its flora and fauna, as well as its over 50 official town holidays. While the flurry of foods and activities can be overwhelming, readers will be focused on Maggie's plight right through to the final conflict. However, as everyone comes to terms with the past, the wrap-up doesn't fully address Maggie's complex family, and her resolution feels contrived. VERDICT An intriguing premise and solid characters can sell this story despite some plotting problems.--Caitlin Augusta

A family begins a new chapter in the story of their mysterious garden. Fourteen-year-old Magnolia "Maggie" Gartner lives on the farm that's been in her family for generations, ever since her tenth-great-grandfather, a Hessian soldier fighting for the British, settled in the New Jersey forests in 1776. He and his wife planted a linden tree that formed the heart of a magical garden. Pragmatic Maggie has meticulously chronicled her family's recipes, anticipating her turn to cook her first dinner. The extraordinary harvests each cook finds in the garden create unique emotional responses among guests. Once shared with friends and townsfolk, the dinners have become a family business, with tickets sold to the wealthy. But when the garden is finally revealed to her, Maggie is devastated to find decay and rot. After all, the garden "showed you what you needed to see. And who you needed to become," so what does this mean for her? Especially since her new friend, Graham Flores, finds the key to the garden gate and discovers the abundance Maggie hoped for. Their destinies are intertwined, it seems. In this page-turning story, Leavitt adroitly balances comedic and poignant elements, classical allusions, and contemporary diversions (like the local cryptid, the Jersey Devil). Convincing journal entries add historical context and character development as German American Maggie and those around her confront the challenges converging on the farm and neighboring town. Richly detailed and imagined; will invite repeat visits to harvest all the delights. (map, family tree)(Fiction. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.