The Lost Flower Children (Novel) - Hardcover

Lisle, Janet Taylor

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0399233938 ISBN 13: 9780399233937

Publisher: Philomel, 1999

Synopsis

Sisters Olivia and Nellie uncover a teacup in Great Aunt Minty's wildly overgrown garden, which they learn is linked to an old story about eight children who were turned into flowers by a fairy spell.

About this title

About the Author

Janet Taylor Lisle was born in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in Farmington, Connecticut, spending summers on the coast of Rhode Island. The eldest and only daughter in a family of five children, she was educated at local schools and at fifteen entered the Ethel Walker School, a girl's boarding school in Simsbury, Connecticut.After graduation from Smith College in 1969 with a degree in English literature, she enlisted and was trained for work in VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). She lived and worked for the next two years in Atlanta, Georgia, organizing food-buying cooperatives in the city's public housing projects and teaching in an early child-care center. Catalyzed by this experience, she enrolled in journalism courses at Georgia State University with the idea of writing about the poverty she had seen. This was the beginning of a reporting career that extended over the next ten years.With the birth of her daughter in 1977, Lisle turned to writing projects that could be accomplished at home. In 1984, The Dancing Cats of Applesap, her first novel for children, was published. Subsequently, she has published ten other novels.

Satomi Ichikawa, creator of the Nora books, lives in Paris, France.

From Publishers Weekly

Lisle's (Afternoon of the Elves) blend of gentle fantasy and tough reality features two motherless children spending the summer with their dithering but well-meaning great-aunt. Nine-year-old Olivia and her five-year-old sister, Nellie, have just lost their mother. Their father, a traveling salesman, cannot cope with single parenthood, especially with Nellie's bizarre behavior (she insists on walking upstairs backward and is completely dependent on Olivia). At first, living with Aunt Minty provides little comfort for the girls, who refuse to make friends with the neighborhood children. Then Olivia finds an old book written by the previous owner of Aunt Minty's house with a story set in a horseshoe-shaped garden identical to Aunt Minty's. The tale describes a group of fairies who invade a tea party of children and transform them into flowers. It's up to the sisters to perform the counter-charm: they must recover and re-assemble the tea set, which is scattered and buried in the garden. Nellie's determination to break the spell gives her a sense of independence and frees Olivia to make new friends. Although Lisle's third-person account straddles perspectives (mostly offering an on-target kid's-eye account of feeling alone and overburdened but occasionally adopting an adult tone), she compellingly demonstrates the transforming power of love and responsibility. Olivia, Nellie and Aunt Minty all blossom in the midst of the overrun garden; once released, they are like the flower childrenAfreed from a long sleep and their isolation. Ages 8-11.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Philomel
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0399233938
• ISBN 13: 9780399233937
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 122