ROSETOWN SUMMER

Following Rosetown (2018), Flora makes summer memories with her friends while dealing with more changes in her small town.

It’s 1973 in Rosetown, Indiana, and Flora Smallwood has survived fourth grade and a year of significant changes. Now it’s August, and Flora and her friends have been busy. Her parents opened a new print shop, and Flora’s been helping there ever since school ended. Yury, a Ukrainian immigrant and her newest friend, has been taking his puppy to obedience training, and Nessy, her longtime friend, has been busy with piano lessons and her pet canary. Everything is excellent in Rosetown, but more change looms as Flora learns that Miss Meriwether, owner of Flora’s beloved bookstore, Wings and a Chair Used Books, may move away to Montana. The bookstore is where she and Yury built their friendship, finding respite and relief from the changes in their lives. As summer comes to an end, Flora makes fun memories with her friends, family, and community and learns to take each change in stride. In Rylant’s sensitive, fluid third-person narrative, Flora expresses the thoughts and feelings of an introverted child. This sequel has the same quaint feel as its predecessor, giving a deeper look into this small town’s simple way of life. The book assumes a White default.

A gentle, pleasant daily-life narrative.