Are you a Flower Lover with a passion for reading? If you answer yes, then this article is for you.
Enjoy reading the summary for 4 flower inspired books if you are curious!
1. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden is a children’s novel created by American author Frances Hodgson Burnett and first published in 1911. (having previously been serialized in The American Magazine). The pastoral tale of self-healing became a children’s classic and is regarded as one of Burnett’s best works.
Mary Lennox is the protagonist of the tale, and she lives in India with her wealthy British family. She is a pampered and obnoxious 10-year-old girl who has been ignored by her unloving parents and spoiled by her staff. Mary is orphaned when her parents and servants are killed in a cholera pandemic. She is transferred to England to live with a widowed uncle, Archibald Craven, at his vast Yorkshire estate, Misselthwaite Manor, after a brief stay with an English clergyman’s family. Her uncle, on the other hand, is rarely seen at Misselthwaite.
The fastidious Mrs. Medlock, the estate’s chief housekeeper, takes Mary to the estate and locks her in a room, telling her not to explore the property.
When Mary discovers that the chambermaid, Martha, is not as subservient as the maids in India, she becomes irritated. Martha’s anecdotes about her own family, particularly those about her 12-year-old brother, Dickon, who has a near-magical ability with animals, pique her interest. Mary is desperate to find the late Mrs. Craven’s walled garden, which was shut ten years previously by the uncle after his wife’s death. She spends the following few weeks exploring the grounds and conversing with Ben Weatherstaff, the elderly gardener. Mary discovers an old key while following a friendly bird one day and believes it will open the locked garden. Soon after, she notices a door in the garden wall and enters the secret garden. It’s overgrown with dormant rose bushes and vines (it’s winter), but she notices some green sprouts and starts removing and weeding that area.
…and the rest is for you to discover.
2. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Doug Spaulding is a twelve-year-old summer vacationing youngster who discovers he is alive one day. And we mean truly alive, as in you have to experience everything, feel everything, write it all down, and memorize it all because it’s all so meaningful. It’s the summer you learn you’re a Goth or the first time you see The Breakfast Club and realize you really, really empathize with Ally Sheedy’s character.
Doug’s emo-ness is exacerbated by the fact that his hometown of Green Town, Illinois, looks like something out of a Tim Burton film. There’s a junk man who travels around town in a horse-drawn wagon, acting as a sort of free, mobile garage sale, baby deliverer, and occasional producer of mysterious potions. Another neighbor makes yet another magical
potion—more of a magical green smoothie, really—to ward off yet another witchy neighbor. Oh, and while we’re on the subject of witches, the arcade may or may not have a real one trapped in wax and residing in a glass box. Then there’s the case of the local serial killer.
Doug, thankfully, has his own team of nice folks. The majority of them are members of his family, including his brother Tom, parents, and grandparents, who own the local boarding house. Families in the United States in the 1920s tended to keep together geographically far more than they do now. You couldn’t just hop on a cheap one-way Priceline flight and start a new life; we’re talking “the quickest car in town goes 15 miles per hour.” Yes, fifteen years old…
If the previous got you excited, you might want to consider reading the book.
3. Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Charlie Gordon, 32, has an IQ of 68 and is intellectually disabled. He lives in New York City and works as a janitor in a bakery run by Mr. Donner, Charlie’s uncle’s friend who took Charlie in when his family abandoned him when he was a child. He attends classes at Beekman, a collegiate facility for persons with intellectual disabilities, a few nights a week. Charlie’s center instructor, Alice Kinnian, notices that he is eager to study and selects him for an experimental operation that will dramatically boost his intelligence. Charlie is instructed to begin writing down his thoughts and feelings in a series of progress reports (which he spells “progris riport” at first). The early progress reports, which serve as the novel’s chapters, are unsophisticated and full of errors, but Charlie’s writing improves dramatically with time.
The experimental operation went off without a hitch. Charlie and Algernon, a mouse who had the surgery before him, go through psychological testing and training. Like Algernon, Charlie begins to make remarkable cerebral progress. Charlie, on the other hand, discovers that his emotional development lags behind his cerebral progress. He has trouble understanding and responding to other people’s emotions, and he has trouble controlling his own. He has trouble controlling his sexuality in particular; he tries to start a relationship with Alice but is terrified by his amorous desires. Furthermore, Charlie’s bakery coworkers become resentful of his transformation.
Charlie’s progress reports detail his growing emotional and romantic problems, as well as his criticism of the Beekman lab staff. Long-buried childhood memories of Charlie begin to resurface. He remembers his mother’s rejection and the sorrow it caused him. When the lab team goes to a conference to present their study, Charlie’s problems come to a head.
Charlie grows enraged at being treated like a lab specimen during the meeting and flees with Algernon.
For a time, Charlie leads a double life, forging a friendship with his next-door neighbor, Fay, a free-spirited artist. Charlie has had enough of the drinking and is concerned about Algernon’s increasingly erratic behavior. He goes back to the Beekman lab to work on intelligence research. Algernon dies and leaves behind all of his intellectual achievements, which has a devastating effect on Charlie. Charlie realizes he, too, will suffer the same fate as Algernon and lose his intelligence…
And no, we will not expose more of it, we encourage you to discover it on your own.
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
When The Perks of Being a Wallflower begins, Charlie, the fifteen-year-old narrator, has just started his freshman year of high school. The namesake “wallflower” is Charlie. He is quiet and reserved, but he is also incredibly perceptive and intelligent, always paying great attention to what is going on around him, even if he is merely a silent observer. The entire book is written as a series of letters to an unnamed “friend.” The reader is never told who this “friend” is, and the “friend” never responds to the reader. “Dear friend,” begins each letter, and “Love always, Charlie,” concludes it. The story reads like a series of journal entries because the recipients of the letters never respond.
Charlie is dealing with two huge tragic deaths of close ones in his past when the narrative begins. His lone friend from middle school committed suicide last spring, which was his most recent death. Charlie’s beloved Aunt Helen was murdered in a vehicle accident on Christmas Eve, which also happened to be Charlie’s birthday when he was seven years old. Charlie is worried about starting high school, but he quickly finds acceptance from two different sources. Bill Anderson, Charlie’s English teacher, notices Charlie’s literary talent and takes him under his wing, assigning him extra books to read and essays to write throughout the year. In addition, Charlie becomes more involved in activities, and he makes friends with Patrick and his stepsister, Sam, who welcome him into their circle of acquaintances. Charlie develops a huge crush on Sam, which he confesses to her, but Sam treats him with affection. Patrick, who is gay, is in a secret relationship with Brad, the football team’s quarterback. Sam kisses Charlie so that he can get his first kiss from someone who cares about him…
We can go as long and as detailed, but where’s the fun in that?
Because our aim was to give you a hint of some flower-inspired books, so we can infuse your curiosity, and help you pick some books to satisfy your need.