Surprise Lily
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Ten-year-old Rose's perfect life is upended when her long-absent disaster of a mother turns up. Can she hold her family together as everything unravels?
Growing up on the farm it was always just Rose and grandma, working the land that had been in the Lovell family for generations. She doesn't miss her mother, Iris, a bit.
In fact, when Iris shows up, Rose is furious. But when an ugly argument between her mother and grandmother reveals painful truths about their family history, Rose runs away. . . . And inadvertently discovers her secret little sister, Lily.
Generations of whispered secrets and family dysfunction surface as Rose struggles to reconcile the home and life she loves with the history she never knew-- and to protect Lily at all costs. Even if it means letting Iris into her life.
In alternating chapters, previous generations of Lovell women narrate their experiences on the farm, adding depth and context to this powerful story of complex families and unconditional love. Moranville's captivating prose will keep readers turning the pages as Rose grapples with her changing life and learns the truth about her family-- mothers, daughters, and women who weren't ready to be either.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This cozy multigenerational saga by the author of 27 Magic Words evocatively explores themes of growing up, mental health, and finding where one fits in a family. Ten-year-old Rose Lovell adores the idyllic life she shares with Ama (her grandmother, whose name is Tulip), on the Illinois farm that has been a part of their family for five generations. Surrounded by the history and possessions of Lovell women, Rose finds comfort in the predictability of her farm life. Though her classmates tease her about Iris, her "druggie" mother who left, Rose has "everything she needed or wanted" and seems free of the bouts of depression that have long plagued her forebears. When Iris appears out of the blue on Ama's birthday and Rose flees after overhearing a vicious argument between her mother and grandmother, Rose finds a secret a surprise lily that threatens to upend her careful life or require more fortitude than she realizes she has. Opening with brief chapters featuring glimpses of the Lovell women's lives throughout the previous century, Moranville offers her contemporary Midwestern characters complex emotional backgrounds and a richly rendered setting. Ages 8 12.
