SEASON OF SECRETS

Imagination and reality blur as a young English girl confronts the cycle of life following her mother’s untimely death. While their grieving father tries to “[get] things Sorted Out,” Molly and her older sister adjust to living over their grandparents’ shop in a country village where they attend a single-room school far from their friends. When Molly encounters a mysterious stranger one autumn night, she’s not sure he’s real. Throughout the season, as the nameless stranger appears and disappears, Molly realizes he resembles the Green Man, an ancient pagan god of rebirth she’s learned about in school. Molly’s sadness deepens until a climatic winter solstice when her stranger vanishes, a new year commences and life gradually improves. In a first-person, present-tense voice, Molly quietly explores her complex relationships with her depressed father, her angry sister, her frustrated grandparents and the enigmatic stranger. Written in gently flowing prose, the plot appropriately transitions from autumn into summer as Molly emerges from grief to acceptance and hope. A poignant story of healing tinged with mystery. (Fiction. 8-12)