The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

Homeschooled, sheltered, and sequestered, nine-year-old Alice Hart wanders away from home, down the long lane to town, and encounters the public library. Doors are opened as she discovers a world larger than her own. She also begins to more clearly see the bruises on her mother's arms and legs, realizing that she has been on the receiving end of her father's wrath. Alice, too, has been on the wrong side of his temper, but life in her Australian home can be wonderful when her mother translates the language of flowers. After a fire destroys all Alice has known, she is sent to live with her grandmother June, who runs a flower farm that is also a home for abused women. Under their guidance and care, Alice grows into a young woman. But a silence haunts Alice as she struggles to find her identity, causing a break with her grandmother. A new life far away among caring friends helps her to begin healing, but her newfound understanding is threatened when the love of an "undeserving man" endangers all that she has gained. This lyrical coming-of-age story intertwines the history and language of flowers with the lives of women. Readers will root for Alice as she attempts to discover and then understand the stories that explain her father and break out of her family's cycle of abuse.