Wolf Hollow. ( Ages 11+ )
By : Lauren Wolk.
Publisher : Dutton Books for Young Readers( May 2016)
The story commences with such a moving confession by the protagonist about loosing her childhood innocence to an "incorrigible" class bully Betty Glengarry. Written in the words of Anna, an innocent country girl, in a lyrical language beautiful and entertaining, but one may feel helplessly miserable at the same time about the tale Anna unravels.
Annabelle tells us everything we wish to hear about her rural country setting and how the second world war effected their unruffled country lives through her innocent and simple narrations. " The talk was of concentration camps / Which I thought at first meant places where people went to think hard thoughts" Wolk`s absolute attention to detail,her use of language and her line up of incidents makes "Wolf Hollow" such a tempting bait altogether.
Her story is filled with many people spanning three generations of young and old, yet assures to introduce them properly, so that we know them, maybe as much as Anna does. Anna`s introduction of her mother turns as " I wasn't afraid of my mother / though despite how hard she could sometimes be / She had forgotten what it felt like to ride a swing up into the sky / To stop hoeing at the first sign of a blister to expect anything to be easier than it was. / She had been seventeen when she `d had me / was only twenty eight the year I learnt how to lie."
The early chapters of the book hints us of the coming of age of an innocent girl through the complexities she`s compelled to encounter, but us readers can hope for an intellectually matured girl who`s brave and protective yet aware of moral values by the end. Wolf Hollow addresses bulling issues as much as it is a historical classic and thus will stay close to children of any day.
-The review was done by reading a short excerpt of the book.- ( With many thanks to Penguin Young Readers and Net Galley for the short ARC )
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