The Flower in the Library Book
A free A1-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
A library page notices the same pressed flower on the same page every time one book is returned, and traces it back to a reader with a quiet garden habit.
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Kaia works at the library on Saturdays. She sorts returned books onto a cart. One book comes back again and again. It is an old book about gardens.
Every time, the same page has a flower. The flower is small, dry, and flat. It always sits on page forty-two.
Kaia finds this very strange. She checks the name on the card. The name is Otilia, a kind reader.
Kaia wants to solve this small puzzle. She waits by the counter on Saturday. A woman with gray hair returns the book.
"Are you Otilia?" Kaia asks kindly.
"Yes, that is me," the woman says.
"I found a flower in your book," Kaia says. "It is always on the same page."
Otilia smiles a warm, quiet smile. "That page has my favorite lines," she says. "I press a flower from my garden. Then I mark that page every time."
"That is a lovely habit," Kaia says.
"My garden has many small flowers," Otilia says. "Would you like to see it sometime?"
Kaia nods with a big smile. "I would love that very much."
The next Saturday, Kaia visits the garden. Otilia gives her a small yellow flower. Kaia presses it inside her own book. She marks her favorite page, just like Otilia.
Now two books in town have flowers.
