Following Rosetown (2018), Flora makes summer memories with her friends while dealing with more changes in her small town. It's 1973 in Rosetown, Indiana, and Flora Smallwood has survived fourth grade and a year of significant changes. Now it's August, and Flora and her friends have been busy. Her parents opened a new print shop, and Flora's been helping there ever since school ended. Yury, a Ukrainian immigrant and her newest friend, has been taking his puppy to obedience training, and Nessy, her longtime friend, has been busy with piano lessons and her pet canary. Everything is excellent in Rosetown, but more change looms as Flora learns that Miss Meriwether, owner of Flora's beloved bookstore, Wings and a Chair Used Books, may move away to Montana. The bookstore is where she and Yury built their friendship, finding respite and relief from the changes in their lives. As summer comes to an end, Flora makes fun memories with her friends, family, and community and learns to take each change in stride. In Rylant's sensitive, fluid third-person narrative, Flora expresses the thoughts and feelings of an introverted child. This sequel has the same quaint feel as its predecessor, giving a deeper look into this small town's simple way of life. The book assumes a White default. A gentle, pleasant daily-life narrative. (Historical fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In this sequel to Rosetown (2018), 10-year-old Flora finds change hard to bear. She hasn't forgotten her pain when the family dog died or when her parents were separated during her fourth-grade year. Now her best friends, Nessy and Yury, are looking into summer activities such as music camp and scouting, which don't appeal to her. But most of all, Flora fears that the owner of the small bookshop in town will close it and move away. That store became her sanctuary throughout her parents' separation, and it was Yury's haven during his first year in the U.S. Would their friendship survive its closing? The clarity and simplicity of the narrative is indicative of Rylant's skill as a writer, and the measured pace of the storytelling seems in keeping with its book's setting, a small Indiana town in 1973. Both children and adults are portrayed as reflective and considerate of others. Readers who feel at home with these characters will find this story as warm, comfortable, and welcoming as Flora's favorite bookshop.