BookBrowse Reviews The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry

In Patti Callahan Henry's novel The Secret Book of Flora Lea, sisters Hazel and Flora Lea Linden are sent to Binsey, Oxfordshire at the beginning of World War II, in the mass evacuation of children from London known as Operation Pied Piper. Despite their age difference, fourteen-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are close. To help her younger sister and get them both through the horror of the war, the loss of their father, and the trauma of being evacuated away from their mother, Hazel creates a fantasy woodland world called Whisperwood and the River of Stars, a safe place just for them. Using their imaginations and Hazel's storytelling gifts, they escape through shimmering hidden doors to this magical land, where they can become any creatures they want to be and go anywhere they want to go. But when a tragedy occurs, Hazel abruptly stops telling stories and abandons her dreams of ...