Bulbs and Blossoms

Two children are uprooted from the only world they know and sent back to England, a cold country of grey winters and unfamiliar aunts. Roland and Olive have returned from India to live with their four aunts at Chatts Chase, and everything feels strange: the bitter chill, the rigid routines, the formidable Miss Hunters who seem as permanent and unyielding as the house itself. But then they meet Old Bob, the gardener, who sees their loneliness and offers them something no one else can: a reason to look forward to tomorrow. Through the turning of the seasons, as they plant bulbs in darkness and wait for spring, the children begin to understand that dormancy is not death. It is the making of something beautiful. The Easter that arrives is not simply a holiday, but a homecoming for their hearts as well. Le Feuvre writes with quiet certainty that children are more perceptive than adults give them credit for, and that faith, like a bulb, grows strongest in the cold.