cbr14bingo Font Level Two
Cynthia Rylant is known for their cute, young stories. If you like having a Happily Ever After ending you will usually get it. And Rosetown Summer is no exception.
This adorable novella is a book two (Rosetown was book one in the Rosetown Books) that can be read as a standalone. The joys of the familiar mix with the fear of the unknown and change, but as our main character travels along the road from fourth to fifth grades, she learns that sometimes change is for the best, even if it is scary.
It is 1973 and Rosetown, Indiana is in full swing. August has snuck up on Flora, as the first few months of summer were busy with her family’s stationary shop. (Cue font: The cards have font, the calendars have some font, the journals will have some font and owls on them.) And this means she has not seen her friends, who are also busy. Or gone to the library. Flora likes things the same and change is not a good thing, but as I summarized, she learns how to deal with her shyness, her dislike of not seeing her friends as she would like, but supporting them when she can, and the thought of her favorite bookstore owner leaving the area.
One of the interesting facts (and I am not sure if Rylant meant it) is that Yury is from the Ukraine. His family did not mean to stay in the United States, but troubles back home made them realize they had to stay, eventually finding their way to Rosetown. This helps give it a “now” tone, but still set in the early 1970s.
And cue two more fonts: One the font of friendship. Or the style of it. You see Times Roman, and you think: solid and sturdy; professional. You See Algerian and you think a little more fanciful. Therefor you see a type of friendship and you have a style that goes with it. With Yury, Flora has a book related friendship, they center around how she can help Yury, how they see each other and what that means. With Nessy, the font is more romantic, she is younger, they still play dolls, her shyness is more than even Flora’s. She does things for Flora because Flora asks, but Flora is there helping her, too. There is the font of the community: You have routines, Times Roman is strong. And a good routine. Algerian is going to music camp and asking a favor of an adult friend. And the second, the cover has a romantic, sweet cover. It fits the tone of the story. Light, airy and even if there is a rainy day or something a little hard, the sun is always around the corner.
