The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry EPUB & PDF– eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Patti Callahan Henry
- Language: English
- Genre: Historical World War II Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 9 MB
- Price: Free
October 1940
Binsey, Oxfordshire
On a red blanket by the river, six-year-old Flora Lea Linden awakens alone, a
dome of blue sky above her and birdsong wild about her. Someone called my
name? She glances around the green expanse, at the churning water of the River
Thames furrowed with winks and puckers as it nearly overflows its banks, taking
to the seaanything or anyone who dares to enter its rush.
The river surges toward Oxford where students hurry to and from tutors
under pinnacled towers standing guard over cobblestone streets. Then the waters
bend and curve, gathering force, bouncing against the stone walls and locks of
England until they reach London, where bombs are plummeting to city streets,
delivering ruination, where smoldering cathedrals and crushed homes litter the
river with their ember and ash.
Did someone call my name? Flora sits and rubs her eyes. She’s not exactly alone.
She has Berry, her stuffed teddy. And she isn’t frightened. Why should she be?
Her older sister, Hazel, told her many times that these woodlands belong to them,
that the shadowed glade and the sacred sunlit puddles where the canopy of trees
opens wide is asafe place meant for the two sisters, created just for them.
She stands and carefully steps closer to the river. Hazel refuses to go with Flora
to Whisperwood anymore, so what’s she to do but go alone? It’s hers!—not to be
abandoned: the glowing castle and the grove of alder, the chattering squirrels and
animated trees.
Hazel had told Flora that the glinting lights on the river were stars and galaxies,
rushing to meet the sea. Hazel had ordered her not to ever become the river, as they
became other woodland creatures, nor should Flora ever drink from the river. If
she did, she was told, she would never find her way back to Mum or Bridie or their
warm cottage in the heather-strewn fields.
This enchanting river was—like the apple in the Bible—forbidden.
But Flora doesn’t believe this beautiful, starry river can be dangerous. She
clings to Berry by his worn, furry paw and ventures nearer to the water’s rush,
thrilled at her boldness. No one knows what might happen to her on this
adventure or who she might become.
She hears a voice nearby in the woods, familiar, but Floraignores it.
The way here was through a shimmering door, and Hazel was too busy to see
it. The river is Flora’s companion, her friend, and this intimacy has her creeping
ever closer to its edge.
Hazel never wants them to pretend to be bunnies, so that’s what she’s decided
today. Flora will be a bunny.
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