''The Painted Garden'' is a

children's novel Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

by British author

Noel Streatfeild Mary Noel Streatfeild OBE (24 December 1895 –11 September 1986) was an English author, best known for children's books including the "Shoes" books, which were not a series (though some books made references to others). Random House, the ...

. It was first published in serial form in 1948, and as a book (subtitled ''The Story of a Holiday in Hollywood'') in 1949. The abridged US edition was entitled ''Movie Shoes''. The novel is now out of print, the most recent publication being the 2000 Collins paperback.''The Painted Garden at the Noel Streatfeild website
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Plot summary

Crabby Jane Winter is furious when her family plans to spend the winter in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, leaving her dog in London. However, her father really needs a holiday to get over his

writer's block Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Mike Rose found that this creative stall is not a result of commitment problems or th ...

. In California, Jane meets a movie producer who realises that her disposition makes her perfect to play Mary in a film version of ''

The Secret Garden ''The Secret Garden'' is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in ''The American Magazine'' (November 1910 – August 1911). Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and ...

''. The novel shows the process of

filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...

from a

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in film, movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associ ...

's perspective. The novel also involves Jane's siblings: Rachel the budding ballerina and Tim the promising pianist, who have their own adventures in California. But the plain and unnoticed Jane is the one who makes it to fame.

Background

Noel Streatfeild visited America in 1947, travelling by sea to New York, then overland to California, as the Winters did in the novel. She visited film studios in Hollywood, and spent several weeks observing the making of ''

'', paying particular attention to the child stars

Margaret O'Brien Angela Maxine O'Brien (born January 15, 1937) is an American film, radio, television, and stage actress, and is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Beginning a prolific career as a child actress in feature f ...

Dean Stockwell Robert Dean Stockwell (March 5, 1936 – November 7, 2021) was an American actor with a career spanning seven decades. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he first came to the public's attention in films including ''Anchors A ...

and Brian Roper.

Publication history

The novel first appeared in 1948 in '' Collins Magazine for Boys & Girls'', with illustrations by

Marcia Lane Foster Nellie Marcia Lane Foster later Marcia Jarrett, (1897–1983), was a British artist notable as a printmaker, portrait painter and book illustrator. Biography Foster was born at Seaton in Devon but raised in Manchester before she moved to Londo ...

, and the serial was republished in ''Collins Magazine Annual for Boys & Girls'' in 1953. The novel was published as a hardback book in 1949, illustrated by Ley Kenyon. An abridged version illustrated by

Susanne Suba Susanne Suba (1913–2012) was a Hungarian-born watercolorist and illustrator, active in the United States. Early life Suba was born ''Zsuzsanna Suba'' in Budapest, Hungary, on December 13, 1913, to May Edwards Suba, a pianist of Brooklyn, N ...

was published in the US by Random House also in 1949, under the title ''Movie Shoes''. The first UK paperback edition was published in 1961, somewhat revised and with illustrations by

Shirley Hughes Winifred Shirley Hughes (16 July 1927 – 25 February 2022) was an English author and illustrator. She wrote more than fifty books, which have sold more than 11.5 million copies, and illustrated more than two hundred. As of 2007, she lived i ...

References

External links

''The Painted Garden''
at the

Open Library Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud, Open Library is a project of the Internet Archive, ...

1948 British novels British children's novels Novels set in California Novels about actors Novels first published in serial form William Collins, Sons books Works originally published in The Young Elizabethan 1948 children's books Novels by Noel Streatfeild {{1940s-child-novel-stub