The Humming Room by Ellen Potter

Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.

As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.

Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret.

This novel was inspired by The Secret Garden. I have never read The Secret Garden and I don't know if that would have changed my mind about this book. I really like the character of Roo. She's had a hard life, but is not broken. She is strong and independent, but still capable of feeling compassion and friendship. I liked her a lot. I liked the mystery of the sanitarium that was building up and that suspense and slightly spooky mystery seemed to be going somewhere and then completely fizzled out. 

There story could have been longer. The story didn't have enough depth. Things needed to be fleshed out more and some questions answered. Who is Jack really? Everything ended so abruptly and so neatly that it was very disappointing. Furthermore, although the reading level is 3rd grade and up, the story has a lot of heavy concepts- murder, drug dealing, sanitariums, depression, etc. The cover art and the slightness of the book are a little deceiving in that way. I don't think this would be my first choice in suggesting a new book to a child.