The Night Gardener

By Terry and Eric Fan
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2016
Picture Book, 48 Pages, Ages 3-5

The Night Gardener begins before the book actually begins. If you don’t stop on the end sheets and look closely you might miss some great detail that will lead you into the story. It continues on the dedication page, with simple but telling illustrations. Be certain to stop there before beginning, you don’t want to miss a thing. 

When topiaries mysteriously begin to appear at night an entire town is changed forever.

This is a large and luxurious feeling book, about a very sad little town. The story begins in front of Grimloch Orphanage with sepia tones illustrations highlighting how sad everyone and everything looks and how disconnected they all seemed.  But things change quickly as one morning William looks out of the orphanage window to a commotion below.  When he raced out the door he discovered that someone had made the tree into a brilliant topiary sculpture of an owl. 

William goes to sleep that night with a sense of excitement…. As the night gardener walks by a house with many cats.  The next morning the town discovers a tree shaped into a cat! As the discoveries continue from day to day the illustrations begin to lighten, the townspeople begin to interact with one another, and a sense of community begins to build.

Suffice to say I won’t give away the ending, but like everything the Fan brothers write and illustrate you won’t be disappointed. The text is simple yet compelling. The illustrations are finely detailed with clues in unexpected places. 

This is not a book to be missed. It’s rich and poignant without being overly burdensome to get the point across. 

The Night Gardener by Terry and Eric Fan receives 5 stars from this reviewer.