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    Rosetown
    Rosetown
    Rosetown
    Ebook103 pages1 hour

    Rosetown

    By Cynthia Rylant

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    “Eloquent and resonant…poignantly underscores the significance of family, friendship, and home.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
    “Gentle and old-fashioned in the best sense…a little gem about small-town life.” —Booklist (starred review)
    “A sweet story for children dealing with change.” —Kirkus Reviews

    From Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant comes the charming story of nine-year-old Flora Smallwood and the eventful year she spends in the quiet community of Rosetown, Indiana.

    For nine-year-old Flora Smallwood, Rosetown, Indiana, is full of surprises, many of the best of which happen at the Wing and a Chair Used Book Shop, where she loves to read vintage children’s books after school in the faded purple chair by the window.

    But lately, those surprises haven’t been so good. Her dear old dog, Laurence, recently passed away. Not long after, her parents decided to take a breather from their marriage, and now Flora has to move back and forth between their two houses. Plus, she’s just begun fourth grade, and it is so much different than third.

    Luckily Flora has two wonderful friends—one old and one new. And with them around to share thoughts and laughs and adventures big and small, life in Rosetown still has many sweet moments—and even some very happy surprises!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBeach Lane Books
    Release dateMay 8, 2018
    ISBN9781534412798
    Author

    Cynthia Rylant

    Cynthia Rylant is a Newbery medalist and the author of many acclaimed books for young people. She's well known for her popular characters for early readers, including Mr. Putter & Tabby and Henry & Mudge. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. cynthiarylant.com

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    Reviews for Rosetown

    4/5

    20 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Ordinarily I find Cynthia Rylant's books a bit too sweet, but this one, oh, this one has such a kindness to it that I just didn't mind being in Flora's sweet life for a little while. It's not all roses, Dad and Mom aren't living together, and Flora's adjusting to that, but the nostalgic awesomeness of the bookstore (with flamboyant owner and comfy chair) and the cat and the eventual print shop (!) pretty much cover most of my favorite things. Good friendship in here, too.

      Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.
    • 5/5
      First sentence: Wings and a Chair Used Books was where Flora Smallwood's mother worked three afternoons a week. Inside, it had a purple velveteen chair by the window for anyone who wanted to stay awhile, and Flora, who sometimes felt quite acutely the stress of being nine years old, and sensitive, loved this chair. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were her favorite day because of it.ETA: I first read Rosetown in August 2021. I loved it then. I loved it now. I may have even loved it more the second time around. I definitely noticed more details the second time around. Still highly recommend this one!Premise/plot: Flora Smallwood (9) lives in Rosetown, Indiana--the year, 1972. She loves vintage books and reading, and she loves hanging out with her new friend, Yury. What she doesn't love is change--at least not too much change, too quickly.My thoughts: Rosetown is a character-driven book. Flora, our protagonist, is adjusting to being a fourth grader AND to her parents separating AND to life without her dog (Laurence). The book takes place over a school year. The focus is on family and friends.I loved, loved, loved the WRITING. Rylant (one of my favorite authors) just has a way with words. I believed in Flora's voice from the first page. By the end of the second chapter I knew were were kindred spirits. I knew that Flora was going to end up being a good, good friend.Here's a quote from chapter two:What Flora noticed at once on the first day of fourth grade had been the sudden confidence all the former third graders seemed to have found, and she wondered where they had found it. Nearly all of her classmates appeared to be taller, louder, stronger, and possessed of a sureness of opinion that had been entirely absent the year before. The stumblers, the wanderers, and the floaters of third grade had suddenly, mysteriously, found their feet. They weren't afraid of school anymore. Or maybe of anything. All of this made Flora a little shy. She missed the uncertainty. Fortunately, a new and uncertain person had arrived in room 22, and with him Flora was beginning to build that precious thing called friendship. His name was Yury, which set him apart right away. His Eastern European name, combined with the burden of being the new boy, made Yury a very uncertain fourth-grade person indeed. He wore large round glasses, which made him look rather owl-like. And he was very smart, like an owl, beneath all of the new-boy uncertainty. Flora knew this right away because he was clever....but he shared his cleverness with only one person in fourth grade: Flora. He sat behind her in class, so it was easy for him to whisper to the back of her head. Yury whispered, Flora smiled, and the seeds of friendship were planted.I highly recommend Rosetown. I loved everything about it!
    • 5/5
      Another gem by Cynthia Rylant. Comforting, but realistic with problems and anxieties.

    Book preview

    Rosetown - Cynthia Rylant

    1

    Wings and a Chair Used Books was where Flora Smallwood’s mother worked three afternoons a week. Inside, it had a purple velveteen chair by the window for anyone who wanted to stay awhile, and Flora, who sometimes felt quite acutely the stress of being nine years old, and sensitive, loved this chair. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were her favorite days because of it.

    The owner of the shop was Miss Meriwether, a tall woman with deep black hair pulled tightly into a ponytail. Miss Meriwether told Flora that in her younger days she had been a free spirit but that one day she’d decided to grow up and open a shop.

    Flora tried to imagine Miss Meriwether as a free spirit, but it wasn’t easy, as the words inventory and bottom line sometimes floated through the bookshop air as Flora sat reading. But Miss Meriwether did like long flowery skirts, so maybe she was still free in her heart.

    Flora’s family had been through a time of sadness, for their old, loving dog, Laurence, had passed away one spring night while everyone was sleeping. They all knew Laurence was fading. But no one believed, really, that he would ever not be with them anymore. Especially Flora, who had held on to his collar ever since she took her first steps.

    But he did: he left them. And since then the idea of a new family pet sometimes had been mentioned. Yet never followed through on. Everyone was, in some way, still holding on to Laurence’s collar.

    Flora was an only child, and her parents were, for now, living in separate homes. The challenges of this, of course, were many. And there was the practical challenge for Flora of having two homes, with her own bedroom in each, for since most things do not come in duplicate, often the one thing she needed right that minute was not in this home, it was in the other. Sometimes the thing was not that important, as in the case of her green scarf or striped coat. But sometimes even something small like that—a scarf or a coat—suddenly felt so vital to her, and she felt a great sad longing because it was not in this home but the other one.

    Flora’s father, Forster Smallwood, worked for the Rosetown newspaper, The Rosetown Chronicle, and he was, Flora thought, a nice man, a good father, and a lost soul. She was not sure why she thought he was lost. Maybe it was the look she often saw on his face, that look that detached him from wherever he was and whatever he was doing and put him somewhere else. Maybe Neptune.

    But he was a good father and a good photographer, too. He often allowed Flora to stand with him in his darkroom to watch a photograph slowly come into being. Standing under the red glow of the darkroom light, Flora watched the blank photographic paper bathe in the pan of chemicals. And then the formerly invisible face of a person would begin to materialize on the wet paper, his features becoming clear and strong, like a ghost who has suddenly found teeth and eyes and ears and put them on.

    Both Flora’s father and mother had been very troubled by the war in Vietnam, and now American soldiers were being withdrawn from the fighting. Rosetown, Indiana, in 1972 was like any other small American town, its citizens sharply divided over the war and what it all had been about. Flora’s father once told her, when he was in a dark mood after the evening television news, You were born into an angry world.

    But then he had smiled, as if he realized how harsh this might have sounded, and he added, Thank goodness you showed up just when we needed you.

    It seemed to Flora that the purple velveteen chair by the window in Wings and a Chair Used Books was more important than ever these days. Laurence had passed on. Her scarves and coats were confused.

    And fourth grade at Rosetown Primary School was so very different from third.

    2

    What Flora noticed at once on the first day of fourth grade had been the sudden confidence all of the former third graders seemed to have found, and she wondered where they had found it. Nearly all of her classmates appeared to be taller, louder, stronger, and possessed of a sureness of opinion that had been entirely absent the year before. The stumblers, the wanderers, and the floaters of third grade had suddenly, mysteriously, found their feet. They weren’t afraid of school anymore. Or maybe of anything.

    All of this made Flora a little shy. She missed the uncertainty.

    Fortunately, a new and uncertain person had arrived in room 22, and with him Flora was beginning to build that precious thing called friendship.

    His name was Yury, which set him apart right away. His Eastern European name, combined with the burden of being the new boy, made Yury a very uncertain fourth-grade person indeed.

    He wore large round glasses, which made him look rather owl-like.

    And he was very smart, like an owl, beneath all of the new-boy uncertainty. Flora knew this right away because he was clever. Clever the way her father was clever. Yury could look at a situation and in one or two sentences say all that needed saying about it. But he shared his cleverness with only one person in fourth grade: Flora. He sat behind her in class, so it was easy for him to whisper to the back of her head. Yury whispered, Flora smiled, and the seeds of friendship were planted.

    They walked the same route after school three afternoons a week. Yury walked to his father’s office on State Street, and Flora walked to the bookshop on Main.

    Yury’s father was a doctor.

    Do you help in the office? Flora asked one day as they walked their route together.

    My father has given me the job of making tea for everyone, Yury answered.

    Even for the patients? asked Flora.

    Yes, said Yury. It is healthy tea which is called Mo’s 24.

    That doesn’t sound very healthy, said Flora. It should be called Tea for Long Life.

    The 24 are twenty-four herbs, explained Yury.

    Well, then, who is Mo?

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