The Blossoming Summer

When the Second World War begins, thirteen-year-old Rosemary is sent from England to spend the summer with her American grandmother, an intimidating woman she scarcely knows. Rosemary's family has been broken apart by the search for work, her parents and brothers scattered and raised by different people, and she longs above all to draw them back together. Staying on her grandmother's farm, she uncovers a family secret, that they are Anishinaabe, and begins learning the words, skills, and customs of a heritage her father kept hidden. A warm bond with her grandmother and a friendship with a gardening-loving local boy help Rosemary find beauty in her unexpected circumstances, and cultivating the garden together becomes the ground where her fractured family starts to heal.