June 23, 2026 by Beach Lane Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
In this third book set in Rosetown, Indiana, in is now 1974. Flora Smallwood is living with both of her parents, Emma Jean and Forster, who now run the Rosetown Paper and Press shop. She and her best friend, Yury, are still sad that their favorite bookstore, A Wing and a Chair, is gone, since the wonder moved away to live with a friend. They have a new haunt, Day Road Farm, run by Farmer Hester, where they enjoy riding horses. Flora loves her town, and doesn't want anything else to change, but knows that there are often circumstances beyond her control. A rash of tornadoes hitting other small towns is a vivid reminder of this. At the end of fifth grade, she and Yury are faced with the rite of passage that is the oral report, but they both do perfectly well after asking the town librarian, Mr. Anderson for help and consulting the How and Why Library for information. They occasionally hang out at the local pharmacy, with its lunch counter and array of 1970s era shampoos like Prell, Breck, and Herbal Essence. Flora learns about the historical society and its attempts at keeping the town as it is, but she and Yury do like the new store that takes the place of A Wing and a Chair. The Slightly Cracked Teacup is an antique and oddity store that does have a few vintage children's books, and Alfie and Roy, who run it, welcome them as customers. When Yury's father has to live in Chicago for a while to train in orthopedics, Flora worries that things will change, but for the moment, most of Rosetown remains comforting and familiar.
Strengths: This is a very gentle historical fiction book that looks back fondly at the world fifty years ago. There are good details about what life was like before computers arrived, and the scope is narrowly focused on the experience of Flora and her friends, which will appeal to readers who are her age. Rosetown is very idyllic; I would have adored this as a child and would have searched out vintage children's books much earlier than I eventually did had I read this!
Weaknesses: This ended rather abruptly, in the way that many books published in the 1970s did. I'm not sure if this was on purpose or not! There could easily be another installment about the Bicentennial, but this is billed as the final book.
What I really think: I would probably buy this for an elementary school library, but it is a bit too slow paced and introspective for middle school. If I had read a book set fifty years ago when I was in elementary school, it would have taken me back to the 1920s, which was always my favorite decade of the twentieth century! This made me feel a tiny bit old, but I still want to travel into the book and take over Mr. Anderson's job so that I can check out The Childhood of Famous Americans book to Flora and Yury!
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