There are rites of passage of a literary childhood. Charlotte’s Web. Where the Red Fern Grows. The Phantom Tollbooth. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. The Secret Garden. These books stay with you for years, growing inside your mind and your soul to become a part of your DNA. The memories from these classics become a part of the fabric of life, popping up from time to time, when you need a moment of comfort or encouragement, or when you see your kids (or nieces, nephews, friends’ kids) going through those same moments in childhood that resonate with you.

Now you can bring The Secret Garden to life even more, for you and for the kids you love. The Secret Garden Cookbook is available with 50 recipes that will transport you back to the pages of the book, where Mary finds a secret garden and nurses it back to health, as those who care for her nurse her back to health with hearty foods cooked to help her grow and with fresh garden vegetables to increase her health.

Starting with the Yorkshire Breakfasts, you can indulge in Perfect Porridge with Brown Sugar and Butter, Coddled Eggs, and Little Sausage Cakes. A Manor Lunch includes Yorkshire Pudding, Roasted Chicken with Bread Sauce, and Jam Roly Poly. And then there’s a chapter on an English Tea, because what could go better with a British literary classic? You can share A Perfect Pot of Tea, Cucumber Tea Sandwiches, Warm Cranberry Scones with Orange Glaze, and Lemon Curd Tartlets.

A chapter on vegetables Straight from the Garden is next, with Spring Peas with Fresh Mint, Sweet Glazed Carrots, and Summer Berry Pudding. Then there is Dickon’s Cottage Food, like Tattie Broth, Yorkshire Oatcakes, and The Best Sticky Gingerbread Parkin. After that, we take a trip to India to taste some of the foods Mary grew up on, like Mulligatawny Soup, Little Bacon and Cilantro Pancakes, and Florence Nightingale’s Kedgeree. The final chapter encourages a Garden Picnic, with recipes for Cozy Currant Buns, English Crumpets, Cornish pasties, and Jammy Chocolate Balls.

Along with the tasty recipes, The Secret Garden Cookbook also serves up tidbits of English history at the time of The Secret Garden, some information about the region of England where the book takes place, and lots of interesting facts about the foods available back then and how they were prepared, served, and eaten. The cookbook is also liberally sprinkled with quotes from the book, to help bring together the foods and the stories in ways that bring them both to life.

Book nerds of all ages and fans of The Secret Garden will find a deeper connection to the children’s book that they love through the recipes and stories in The Secret Garden Cookbook. Sharing these foods with the kids in your life will also help them fall more in love with the book and learn a little about the history of Victorian England, whether they want to or not. This is a really beautiful cookbook and a fun experience, and something special for the bookish kid in us all.

Galleys for The Secret Garden Cookbook were provided by Quarto Publishing Group through NetGalley, but I loved it so much I bought a copy for myself.