Book Notes | ‘ The Secret Book of Flora Lea’ by Patti Callahan Henry
Overall, our group liked The Secret Book of Flora Lea with its rich descriptions and happy ending.
One member felt the book was well plotted with clues slipped in, though a bit wordy with flowery descriptions. She enjoyed the plot twist at the end. Another member who enjoyed the book said it was “a little fantastic.” He loved Whisperwood — the magic land that sisters Hazel and Flora created before Flora disappeared — and the rich descriptions.
The story of Hazel later in life, stealing the manuscript that described the sisters' Whisperwood, was an incredible device, used well; it led Hazel to seek out her long-lost sister. One member mentioned the detailed descriptions and said she enjoyed the book, but might not recommend it.
Another thought Flora at age six should have had some recall about being secretly taken and raised in a different family with a new name. Hazel, Flora's older sister, blamed herself for Flora’s disappearance.
Another member of our book group liked the countryside setting and the Whisperwood fantasy world the girls created, having been moved away from their mother in London in 1939 because Germans would be bombing the city.
We talked about the heart-wrenching removal of 1.5 million people from British towns and cities over three days in September 1939, and how Hazel and Flora Lea were lucky to live with kind Bridie and family. Some other children were placed in families that treated them like slaves.
One member recalled the Orphan Trains that took poor and homeless children from eastern cities in the U.S. to rural American from 1854 to 1929. Another mentioned the Kindertransport of Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940.
—Judy Helgen, UMRA Book Club I
'The Secret Book of Flora Lea' by Patti Callahan Henry
Fri, Sep 18, 2026, 2pm
UMRA Book Club I will discuss The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry when it meets via Zoom at 2 p.m. on Friday, September 18. The day’s discussion leader will be Judy Helgen.
Set in England during World War II and the 1960s, the book starts with the disappearance near the Thames River of a five-year-old girl named Flora Lea. It is assumed that she drowned, but her body is never found. Her older sister, Hazel, had told Flora Lea stories about a made-up, magical land.
Many years later Hazel discovers a book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars, with details that would be unknown to anyone except Flora Lea and Hazel. Could the book hold the secret of Flora Lea’s disappearance?
Hazel goes on a quest to find her sister. An astonishing twist reveals the truth in this refreshingly original novel about the love between two sisters, and the enduring magic of storytelling.
Email Pat Tollefson to learn more.
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