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The Lost Flower Children
After their mother's death, Olivia and Nellie go to live with their great aunt, where they slowly bring her weedy old garden back to life as they search for "flower children".
122 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 1999
4 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Janet Taylor Lisle
43 books50 followersJanet Taylor Lisle was born in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in Farmington, Connecticut, spending summers on the Rhode Island coast.The eldest child and only daughter of an advertising executive and an architect, she attended local schools and at fifteen entered The Ethel Walker School, a girl’s boarding school in Simsbury, Connecticut.
After graduation from Smith College, she joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). She lived and worked for the next several years in Atlanta, Georgia, organizing food-buying cooperatives in the city’s public housing projects, and teaching in an early-childcare center. She later enrolled in journalism courses at Georgia State University. This was the beginning of a reporting career that extended over the next ten years.
With the birth of her daughter, Lisle turned from journalism to writing projects she could accomplish at home. In 1984, The Dancing Cats of Appesap, her first novel for children, was published by Bradbury Press (Macmillan.) Subsequently, she has published sixteen other novels. Her fourth novel, Afternoon of the Elves (Orchard Books) won a 1990 Newbery Honor award and was adapted as a play by the Seattle Children’s Theater in 1993. It continues to be performed throughout the U.S. Theater productions of the story have also been mounted in Australia and The Netherlands.
Lisle’s novels for children have received Italy’s Premio Andersen Award, Holland’s Zilveren Griffel, and Notable and Best Book distinction from the American Library Association, among other honors. She lives with her husband, Richard Lisle, on the Rhode Island coast, the scene for Black Duck(2006), The Crying Rocks (2003) and The Art of Keeping Cool, which won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2001.
After graduation from Smith College, she joined VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). She lived and worked for the next several years in Atlanta, Georgia, organizing food-buying cooperatives in the city’s public housing projects, and teaching in an early-childcare center. She later enrolled in journalism courses at Georgia State University. This was the beginning of a reporting career that extended over the next ten years.
With the birth of her daughter, Lisle turned from journalism to writing projects she could accomplish at home. In 1984, The Dancing Cats of Appesap, her first novel for children, was published by Bradbury Press (Macmillan.) Subsequently, she has published sixteen other novels. Her fourth novel, Afternoon of the Elves (Orchard Books) won a 1990 Newbery Honor award and was adapted as a play by the Seattle Children’s Theater in 1993. It continues to be performed throughout the U.S. Theater productions of the story have also been mounted in Australia and The Netherlands.
Lisle’s novels for children have received Italy’s Premio Andersen Award, Holland’s Zilveren Griffel, and Notable and Best Book distinction from the American Library Association, among other honors. She lives with her husband, Richard Lisle, on the Rhode Island coast, the scene for Black Duck(2006), The Crying Rocks (2003) and The Art of Keeping Cool, which won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
February 19, 2023
This sat on our shelves for years, I didn't realise this would be one of those stories that has so much for any age.
Two young girls have lost their mother, they are traumatised and their father has to travel to work. They go to stay with an elderly aunt who was once a famous gardener. They discover a book and a mystery.
I loved that these children were had complex personalities and I loved that their aunt was empathetic and realised that they were traumatised and didn't just label them as bad.
I loved the way this story used magic and just the slight hint that there was adult involvement (or was there?)
I read this aloud and my daughter enjoyed the humour, this was really funny in places. A story that works on so many levels. This will be especially poignant for those who have lost a loved one or someone who has grown up without a loving parent. The ending is wonderful and ties in the fictional myth with a believable and an emotional resolution.
4.5 stars.
Two young girls have lost their mother, they are traumatised and their father has to travel to work. They go to stay with an elderly aunt who was once a famous gardener. They discover a book and a mystery.
I loved that these children were had complex personalities and I loved that their aunt was empathetic and realised that they were traumatised and didn't just label them as bad.
I loved the way this story used magic and just the slight hint that there was adult involvement (or was there?)
I read this aloud and my daughter enjoyed the humour, this was really funny in places. A story that works on so many levels. This will be especially poignant for those who have lost a loved one or someone who has grown up without a loving parent. The ending is wonderful and ties in the fictional myth with a believable and an emotional resolution.
4.5 stars.
May 15, 2023
A sort of an onion of a book. At first Nellie, age 5, is pure spoiled brat. Then we realize why Olivia, 9, is taking such 'good' care of her. Then as we learn more about the inner lives of the girls, we start to solve the mystery of the Flower Children. Then we think we have solved it... and then there's a sort of an epilogue, that little shoot in the center of a mature bulb.... Can be read on many levels, and reread as a child gets older. Subtle and entertaining both. Highly recommended.
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Found at FotL Chanute so was able to enjoy again. And now it's been requested by a member of paperbackswap, so yay for readers of vintage children's lit.!
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Found at FotL Chanute so was able to enjoy again. And now it's been requested by a member of paperbackswap, so yay for readers of vintage children's lit.!
November 20, 2017
بعد از مدتها، اولین کتابی که پایانش بیشتر از کل داستان هیجانزدهم کرد! مدتها بود چنین چیزی نخونده بودم.
علاوهبراین، دومین کتابی بود که پایانش درواقع یک شروعِ اسرارآمیز محسوب میشد. (اولینش، کتابِ "اسب سفید در مرداب" نوشتهی "ارزولا ایسبل" بود.)
علاوهبراین، دومین کتابی بود که پایانش درواقع یک شروعِ اسرارآمیز محسوب میشد. (اولینش، کتابِ "اسب سفید در مرداب" نوشتهی "ارزولا ایسبل" بود.)
December 5, 2019
When nine-year-old Olivia and her five-year-old sister Nellie’s mother dies, their father sends them to live with their great-aunt Minty. This arrangement seems less than promising to Olivia, who worries about the demanding and difficult Nellie. When the girls find a beautiful blue teacup in Aunt Minty’s garden however, they are drawn into a summer-long quest to find the entire set, a necessary part of the counter-charm needed to free the Lost Flower Children, spoken of in a story Olivia has read about this very garden.
A moving story about two young girls and how they come to terms with their mother’s death, The Lost Flower Children possesses Lisle’s characteristic blend of fantasy and reality, in which the reader is never sure if the magic is real or imagined. The faintest touch of real magic at the end, another Lisle characteristic, gives emphasis to the book’s journey of imagination. Recommended to anyone seeking children's fiction that addresses the death of a parent, and the healing process.
A moving story about two young girls and how they come to terms with their mother’s death, The Lost Flower Children possesses Lisle’s characteristic blend of fantasy and reality, in which the reader is never sure if the magic is real or imagined. The faintest touch of real magic at the end, another Lisle characteristic, gives emphasis to the book’s journey of imagination. Recommended to anyone seeking children's fiction that addresses the death of a parent, and the healing process.
September 11, 2017
مدتها بود که همچین کار کودک با احساسی نخونده بودم. یه تفکر و خیال کودکانه ی ناب توی کتاب موج میزد. خیالپردازی و رسیدن به اون خیال. شکستن یه طلسم برای نجات. تقابل و همراهی شخصیت ها و عمه مینتی. اگه اهل خوندن کتابای کودک با حسوحال ناب هستین شدیدا پیشنهاد می شود
March 10, 2012
This gentle read is a wonderful family story.
May 25, 2012
Olivia and her complicated little sister Nellie have lost their mother, and their salesman father has to leave them with their Great Aunt Minty while he travels. 5 year old Nellie is coping with the loss by hedging herself around with rules and obsessive behaviours, which Olivia has to safeguard and explain. Frail old Minty gives them the run of her overgrown garden and overloaded bookshelves, but otherwise stands back.
When Minty digs up a tiny blue teacup, and Olivia finds a story of children under enchantment in a garden like their own - a story written by a former owner of the house - Nellie sets out to find all the buried cups, and free the children trapped as flowers.
Overall, this was quite good. Lisle does a good job, within a short book, of portraying children suffering loss in different ways. As an adult reader, I could see the ending coming, but it didn't feel wrenched into shape. If I'd read this as a child, I would have loved it for the setting (overgrown garden, house full of books, eccentric old lady) though I might have been disappointed that the magic wasn't overt.
When Minty digs up a tiny blue teacup, and Olivia finds a story of children under enchantment in a garden like their own - a story written by a former owner of the house - Nellie sets out to find all the buried cups, and free the children trapped as flowers.
Overall, this was quite good. Lisle does a good job, within a short book, of portraying children suffering loss in different ways. As an adult reader, I could see the ending coming, but it didn't feel wrenched into shape. If I'd read this as a child, I would have loved it for the setting (overgrown garden, house full of books, eccentric old lady) though I might have been disappointed that the magic wasn't overt.
March 20, 2017
Read this when I was in elementary school and it has always stuck with me. Magical story.
August 17, 2017
Sweet story. Lovely illustrations.
July 19, 2022
I recently rediscovered this book while going through some of my things at my parents’ house. My copy is water damaged and worn from being well loved as a kid - my mom had to laminate the paperback cover so it wouldn’t fall apart.
Growing up, one of my favorite times of year was parent teacher conferences because it meant the Scholastic Book Fair would set up shop in our school library and we could get a bunch of books. I remember getting this one and my mom reading it me and my brother at bedtime. She read to us nearly every night and I believe that’s where my love of reading comes from.
I also believe this book led to my love of fairies and magic. I reread it over the last couple of days and was reminded of my
tiny tea set that I would take into the backyard and set up next to the fairy huts I’d build out of sticks, hoping I’d catch some fairies enjoying a tea party.
My memory might be off but I feel like we read this book every summer growing up because I loved fairies, and I loved it so much, but I’d forgotten nearly everything except the teacups. I wanted to re-read it and connect with my inner child a bit and it was a happy magical memory to do so but the story was a bit sadder than I remembered. It’s interesting the things we notice as kids vs adults.
The grief, sadness, and ocd/anxiety were not big pieces to the magical fairy/garden story I remember as a kid and yet they were very prevalent this time around. What I loved most was sweet Aunt Minty who knew what to do to help the kids feel safe, loved, and grow, all while keeping the magic alive. Despite their hardships, she helped the kids set those heavy things down for a while to just be kids. It reminded me of how much my mom did all of that for me and my brother growing up - she was the magic behind the story and the magic behind my amazing childhood. So for that, I give this sweet story that took me down memory lane 4 stars.
Growing up, one of my favorite times of year was parent teacher conferences because it meant the Scholastic Book Fair would set up shop in our school library and we could get a bunch of books. I remember getting this one and my mom reading it me and my brother at bedtime. She read to us nearly every night and I believe that’s where my love of reading comes from.
I also believe this book led to my love of fairies and magic. I reread it over the last couple of days and was reminded of my
tiny tea set that I would take into the backyard and set up next to the fairy huts I’d build out of sticks, hoping I’d catch some fairies enjoying a tea party.
My memory might be off but I feel like we read this book every summer growing up because I loved fairies, and I loved it so much, but I’d forgotten nearly everything except the teacups. I wanted to re-read it and connect with my inner child a bit and it was a happy magical memory to do so but the story was a bit sadder than I remembered. It’s interesting the things we notice as kids vs adults.
The grief, sadness, and ocd/anxiety were not big pieces to the magical fairy/garden story I remember as a kid and yet they were very prevalent this time around. What I loved most was sweet Aunt Minty who knew what to do to help the kids feel safe, loved, and grow, all while keeping the magic alive. Despite their hardships, she helped the kids set those heavy things down for a while to just be kids. It reminded me of how much my mom did all of that for me and my brother growing up - she was the magic behind the story and the magic behind my amazing childhood. So for that, I give this sweet story that took me down memory lane 4 stars.
March 16, 2021
I think this book would have benefited if had been a young adult contemporary and had gone more in depth into Olivia's depression, how/why the girls isolate themselves and their relationship with their father. This seems to be sold as an easy reader/chapter book but I do not think this book is suited for that. The magical elements weren't fleshed out that much and the plot twist could be seen from a mile away. The book also kind of just ended mid conversation? I did really enjoy the illustrations and their was so much potential but it just fell flat.
May 23, 2023
So very much more could have been done with this concept!
Especially when you exclude a dreadfully behaved younger sister.
It is appalling to me that our culture consistently excuses wretched, selfish behavior because of circumstance; writes it into the literature of our youth, and pats the older ones on the head for their assistance and for being so very “understanding”.
Especially when you exclude a dreadfully behaved younger sister.
It is appalling to me that our culture consistently excuses wretched, selfish behavior because of circumstance; writes it into the literature of our youth, and pats the older ones on the head for their assistance and for being so very “understanding”.
January 14, 2020
Sadly this little book is dated.
October 21, 2012
My favorite part was when Olivia,Nellie,and Minty find all of the tea set,eight cups and a pot.The worst part was when the lost flower children never came back from being in a curse.My favorite character was Minty.The worst character was the green-skins.I like this book because it is about flowers that were turned from children.Auryn 9yo
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 11, 2009
Aunt Minty is pretty great. I kept expecting her to do something I would do, but she keeps the two girls as well as the reader, on their toes.
October 14, 2011
This book is what made me like flowers so much. I love how the poems told the children where the teapot set was and the pictures were amazing.
April 1, 2016
Very sweet little magical story.
January 4, 2021
Great story with some unexpected twists!
May 20, 2023
A delicately mixed story involving a garden mystery and the challenge of moving forward after a death in the family. The characters, Olivia (age 9) and Nellie (age 5), are left with their elderly Aunt Minty after the death of their mother. Their father is struggling to manage the care of the girls and his job that keeps him on the road. This storyline is so typical of Junior Fiction, parents can't manage so an elderly relative takes over - it is almost like children cannot possibly have an adventure or learn an important life lesson when their parents are actually present. The author does do a good job of illustrating the trauma of losing a parent, mind you the focus is on the death of the mother when in fact, both parents are gone because the father never comes to visit the girls once in the story which, to me, is just so unrealistic.
The story does not offer much for action but the mystery of the Lost Flower Children is suitably magical and keeps the reader generally interested. Though you can easily guess how the story will progress. Character depth is explored a bit but it would be nice to know more about the main characters and I also wanted to know more about the mother who had passed away. Knowing a bit more about both parents would have be nice - without those backstories, it is difficult to feel connected to that part of the story.
Although the idea was charming and the sensitive issue of a parent's death was explored, there was just so much more that could have been included to make the story a more endearing and unforgettable read.
The story does not offer much for action but the mystery of the Lost Flower Children is suitably magical and keeps the reader generally interested. Though you can easily guess how the story will progress. Character depth is explored a bit but it would be nice to know more about the main characters and I also wanted to know more about the mother who had passed away. Knowing a bit more about both parents would have be nice - without those backstories, it is difficult to feel connected to that part of the story.
Although the idea was charming and the sensitive issue of a parent's death was explored, there was just so much more that could have been included to make the story a more endearing and unforgettable read.
March 27, 2019
Bittersweet - this wasn’t what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be more about the sisters search for the tea set in their great aunts garden, and instead it was more so a story about 2 young girls and their journey through their grief after their mother dying and their father leaving them with with their Aunt Minty for the summer.
I think that I have much different feelings about this story coming at it from a grown-up (and being a mother myself) perspective than I would have had I read this when I was 9 or 10 years old. Their struggle with their grieving over their mother broke my heart.
It was very reminiscent of The Secret Garden, and in retrospect I enjoyed it, but it really wasn’t what I expected it to be. It would make for an excellent rainy day read when you need emotional catharsis.
I think that I have much different feelings about this story coming at it from a grown-up (and being a mother myself) perspective than I would have had I read this when I was 9 or 10 years old. Their struggle with their grieving over their mother broke my heart.
It was very reminiscent of The Secret Garden, and in retrospect I enjoyed it, but it really wasn’t what I expected it to be. It would make for an excellent rainy day read when you need emotional catharsis.
July 6, 2023
This is one I remember from childhood! My mom got this book for me and I remember reading it at the table while eating macaroni and cheese. I couldn't recall the ending, but I know I read it a few times back then. Another cozy comfort read - I like the way Janet Taylor Lisle writes the characters and describes their thought processes. The personal healing and magical realism in this story reminds me of Sarah Addison Allen's books.
July 20, 2020
I got this book at a scholastic book fair probably 15 years ago, and either never read it or don’t remember reading it. It was cute! Nellie is frustrating and I don’t think her behavior can be explained away by “she’s young”, but it’s realistic for some families. Overall a decent book, even though I might not be the target audience.
April 26, 2020
Lovely mystery!
February 26, 2022
Excellent read!
What a fun story! Anyone who wants a little something different, this is the perfect book!! A definite feel good!!
What a fun story! Anyone who wants a little something different, this is the perfect book!! A definite feel good!!
May 25, 2022
Oh what a precious story about loss, family, grief and , ways to start over carrying that grief.
November 11, 2023
A fun pleasant story
January 26, 2024
idk everyone drove me nuts
February 8, 2024
Loved this book and the characters
March 21, 2024
A truly sweet book that manages the tricky balance of suitability and interest for all ages.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews