Middle Grade Book Review: 'Rosetown' by Cynthia Rylant

“Rosetown” Is A Cozy Read In Our Chaotic World

Friendship, forgiveness, and self-discovery reside in the pages of Rosetown, a charming little book with big messages prettily packaged and delivered in a whisper-soft tone.

Sensitive and precocious 9-year-old Flora Smallwood has lived in Rosetown, Indiana since she was born. It’s 1972 and the Vietnam War is still raging while in the tiny town of Rosetown Flora is faced with fallout of a different nature. Her beloved dog Laurence is dead, she’s one year closer to fifth grade and leaving her elementary school, and her parents are living in two separate houses.

Her “lost soul” father, Forster, a newspaper photographer, and her mom, Emma Jean, a part-time bookseller at Flora’s favourite shop in the world, Wings and a Chair Used Books, were a peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk, iced tea and lemon kind of couple-- closer than close and best together. . . until suddenly they’re not. Together that is.

Split between the two, and not home at either home Flora and her equally clever best friend Yury, a 9-year-old Ukrainian immigrant, spend their afternoons in the cozy Young People’s Nook at the Used Books store reading vintage books aloud and sharing their troubles and dreams.

There’s a dreamy, vaguely hazy quality to Rosetown. The quaint town feels like another world entirely. The chaos and outrage over the ongoing war are muted in Rosetown. So muted, if it weren’t for Flora musing about her parent’s equal unhappiness with the Vietnam War, readers would have no sense of when the story takes place. 

Author Cynthia Rylant crafts a tiny and timeless universe in Rosetown. Rosetown is peaceful, safe, and protective. It’s a little corner of the universe that’s far removed from a world loaded with bombs, fighting, and turmoil.

Rosetown is a light and delicate book. It’s a shortbread cookie swathed in a crisp ivory sheet of tissue paper kind of novel. The focus on friendship, exploring the arts of music and poetry, and nurturing and mending fractured relationships are what drive Rosetown. The simplicity and understated tone are two of the things that I loved so much about reading this. 

Rylant doesn’t rely on telling us what’s going on. Her words show us and envelope us in each moment. Emotion radiates out from them. Flora is such a sweet and earnest character which makes her instantly likable. Her love for her parents, her friends Nessy and Yury and the stray cat she adopts and names Serenity make this a heartfelt and earnest read and a book I didn’t want to put down for even a minute.

I read Rosetown two days before leaving the country for Scotland. With a 7 and a ½ hour plane ride creeping ever closer the gentleness of Rosetown was just what I needed to curb my pre-flight jitters. Rosetown is a wonderful book to read in-between books. Especially heavy, dramatic ones with dark themes.  

Readers who are teens or adults will take an hour or less to read this sweet little book, and the target audience, especially the young readers will be sure to find much happiness and pleasant surprises in these pages.

Recommended.

Gifs from giphy.