Such a lovely book! I adore stories that follow an individual character’s life and journey. This one was so well done. The first part of the story was definitely my favorite. Esme was a fascinating child. Once she was older my interest in her started to wane, but I really loved reading about her friendship with Lizzie and then the story progressing into wartime. I’ve never given any thought to the creation of the dictionary before. The research seemed very thorough including a timeline at the end of the book. Everything came full-circle.