And she spent hours in the library comparing flower meaning dictionaries(and countless hours photographing flowers with old time camera which she spends money on the film development even though she has very little money), but didn't bother to read one single book on pregnancy or child care.

This was special, and did really suit me in the form of short intense chapters, alternating between the past and present. Tethering me somewhere between constantly feeling bereft yet hopeful, but precariously edgy. I did not put this book down on many occasions. When we first encounter Victoria, it’s the day of her eman- cipation from foster care, her eighteenth birthday. Emancipation couldn’t be a more ironic word for this moment. For Victoria, as for most foster-care survivors—myself included—freedom really means free fall. She has nowhere to go, no resources, no one who cares about her. She ends up sleeping in a public park, tending a garden of pil- fered blossoms and living on her wits. Only when a local florist sees Victoria’s special way with flowers is she given a means to survive. The Language of Flowers is the debut novel of American author Vanessa Diffenbaugh. It was published in 2011 by Ballantine Books. [1] The novel follows the fraught life of a Victoria Jones, who by the age of 18, had lived in 32 foster homes, and becomes a flower arranger. [2]Through the language of flowers she reconnects to the world, learns to trust and forgive. The language of flowers was the only language she could trust. The one way of communication she could be totally honest in. As time passes and she becomes a young adult, she learns to write her own floral dictionary in which she re-evaluated the different flowers. She basically changed the destiny of the flowers by changing their meanings. But to get to that point, she had to first lash out and destroy, the only way she learnt how to cope with her world. A long road of redemption and forgiveness was her destiny.

This book is the darling of book clubs all over the country but I found it to be insipid and flawed. It showed great promise for about the first third. Diffenbaugh seemed to show an accurate and heartbreaking portrait of a young girl who is let down by the foster care system. She is angry and damaged. This was believable and felt very real. Not only does Dena Seiferling deliver a message about the importance of bees to the ecosystem in her beautiful authorial debut, she also teaches readers of the various meanings of the flowers we encounter every spring and summer. The messages remind me of a YA novel I read earlier this spring, Tahira in Bloom by Farah Heron, in which one of the characters is well acquainted with the meanings of different flowers.

The Language of Flowers: An Alphabet of Floral Emblems (1857)

I received this book through a postal book swap and we were just permitted to post online as we are through our rotation. Kate: I found it fascinating that someone like Victoria, who is so hardened on the outside, is able to find solace in something as soft and sensitive as flowers—yet it was believable. What was your inspi- ration for her character? I love flowers although my knowledge of them is fairly limited, and I really liked this story, where flowers played a central role.

The author has quite a few errors in grammar (where was the editing?) and overuses some verbs. I was very tired of characters being "startled" for instance. I also felt that the use of foreshadowing was done with a very heavy hand. I didn't need to be clobbered over the head with it. A subtle hint would have been enough.I've always believed that giving flowers meant something . I knew that red roses meant love and somewhere along the line I learned that Baby's Breath , almost always in a bride's bouquet signified everlasting love . However, that was the extent of my knowledge of the meaning of flowers , originating in the Victorian era - until I read this book . Do flowers speak to us in this way ? I really don't know but it's nice to think so and the author has creatively wrapped this language around this story. The problems I have with this are that there isn’t any reason for any of the people who help this girl to want to help her. She snarls and sulks and is so hard and distant that I was left wondering why any of these people wanted to be around her let alone assist her. No one knows her sad/bitter/hostile history and she isn't talking so why should they feel anything for her?