It's All in the Book! by Theresa Gautheir

    I didn’t expect to love The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry. I thought it would be good, but I didn’t realize how compelling it would be. Whenever I put it down, getting back to it was my only priority.  It’s a solid story about, Hazel, a woman who has been unable to move on after her little sister, Flora, disappeared. 

It’s historical fiction split between World War II, which is when Flora disappeared, and in the 1960s, when Hazel’s life is turned topsy-turvy as she comes across a book that contains details from a childhood story she’d made up and used to entertain her sister. Only the two of them knew the story, so how can it be in this illustrated children’s book? 

Hazel and Flora were evacuated to the countryside during World War II as part of England’s Operation Pied Piper. That project saw 1.5 million people—800,000 of them children—moved from target cities to escape the German bombing. For Hazel and Flora, as, I’m sure, for most children, leaving their homes was traumatic and terrifying. Though the home they went to was safe and even, for the most part, fun, they relied on Hazel’s made-up stories as a thread of familiarity—a link between their new, safe life, and their old familiar one.        

To any casual observer the Hazel of the 1960s has moved on, forged a path—career, fiancé, a new job—but those closest to her know that she’s refused to accept the notion that Flora died. Finding herself still looking for her sister’s familiar features as she walks through her life, she wants more than closure. She wants her sister back.

Reading details of a story she’d made up as a child in the pages of a book taunts Hazel and leads her to make rash, uncharacteristic decisions and jeopardize the life she’s built for herself. Her heartache is coupled with a strong hope, and therein lies the most compelling thing about the story. You want to believe that Hazel will find out what happened to Flora, and you want to know just who this author is and how she knows Hazel and Flora’s story. 

It’s the bait on the hook to get you to pick up the novel, but it’s the way Patti Callahan Henry writes that kept me devouring her every word. I connected with these characters, sympathized with their situations, hoped for things to turn out well for them, in a way that I haven’t connected to a story in a long time. 

Why did I assume this would just be a good story and not a great one? I’ve no real explanation for that. It could be my assumption that historical fiction isn’t quite my cup of tea—although in the past year, I’ve enjoyed far more historical fiction than I have since I was a child. 

Patti Callahan Henry created a story that enticed me to devour it in massive chucks—the way I read books as a kid rather than squeezing in moments to read a paragraph or a page. Looking back over other titles she’s written, I find myself wanting to read a great many of them. It’s one of the joys of reading when you find an author who’s written quite a few books, and you can add those to your To Be Read list.