Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk

Wolf Hollow is a work of Juvenile Historical Fiction written for ages 9 to 12. I will be reviewing this book in the category of Middle-Grade Historical Fiction.

Wolf Hollow tells the story of Annabell, a girl growing up in rural Pennsylvania during World War II. Her life changes when Betty comes to live in her small town, begins harming her peers at school, and then blames the harm done on the town's local vagrant Toby, a WWI Veteran who is odd but has never done anyone in the community harm.

I chose this novel because I was intrigued by the description of Annabelle and Toby's relationship, as well as by the idea of a middle-grade book that focuses on a World War One Veteran as a primary character. It seems that the events, both historical and narrative, from WWI are often overshadowed by those of WWII, and so this perspective in a book for children interested me. I also saw that Wolf Hollow was a Newbery Honor Book, which is a strong recommendation, and the summary reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird in the best possible way.

I will be reviewing setting, character, and pacing in this post.

Setting plays an important role in Wolf Hollow. Annabelle grows up in a quiet, rural community, where everyone knows each other and trusts each other. It is a true community, made up of individuals who live, work, worship, and play together and who help each other out in hard times. It is also a community that is distrusting of outsiders, which makes it very easy for Betty to use Toby as a scapegoat for her wicked deeds when she thinks she might be caught and punished. The ease with which Betty lays blame on Toby is a result of her being from a good, known family, while Toby is a stranger and is strange. For the majority of the people in Annabelle's town, no other evidence is needed to determine guilt than Toby's strangeness, something which is illustrated by Annabelle's Aunt Lily's uninformed yet insistent bias against him throughout the novel. The town had considered Toby to be guilty of something all along, but they were not sure what he was guilty of until Betty provided them with crimes for which he could be blamed. While similar plots can be found in many different settings, the personal nature of the conflict is a direct result of the intimacy of Annabelle's community. The conflict is not focused on white verses black or rich verses poor, but rather on known verses unknown, something that is harder to make believable in more modern and urban settings where this leve of interdependence of one's community is significantly less believable.

Toby himself is an interesting character. While he is a largely static character, he does show some transformation in response to Annabelle's attempt to make him tidy when she tries to help him hide in plain sight. Toby is typically quiet and skittish, a man who loves nature and is gentle, a man who is haunted by memories of a terrible war, and a man who works hard not to be beholden to others despite his lack of a job or any other real stability. He squats in an abandoned smokehouse and generally tries to stay out of the community's way. However, because of the kindness of Annabelle's mother, who sometimes leaves out food or hand-me-down clothing for Toby to help him get by, Toby develops an affinity for and protectiveness towards Annabelle and her two younger brothers. Still, he is deeply traumatized by his time serving in WWI, so that even Annabelle, his staunchest defender, repeatedly calls him odd. Toby's character living within this rural Pennsylvania setting creates an interesting way for Wolk to explore mental health and PTSD, as well as how communities respond to it. Additionally, her decision to draw him out of his oddness and reticence in response to human care and some basic self-care was well done. While Annabelle's care and respect for Toby, as well as her insistence that he show respect for himself, did not magically heal Toby of his severe PTSD, it did show how respect and understanding can give ground for honesty, understanding, and healing to begin. While Toby died, in the eyes of most of the community, as a dirty drifter, a wanted man, maybe guilty and maybe not, Annabelle was able to see him as a whole, if very hurt, human, and inspires empathy in her story's readers to hopefully do the same as they encounter mental illness in the lives of those around them.

Finally, Wolf Hollow was very well-paced. I have always enjoyed middle-grade literature but sometimes get frustrated when too much is left out of the plot for the sake of brevity, though I also respect the need for brevity in these books. They are written for a young audience rather than for adult readers. Wolf Hollow, however, left me with no large, unaddressed gaps in the plot while moving along as a quick and approachable read. In the moments where more mature themes were brought up, Wolk cleverly brushed over the heavier details, simply stating that Annabelle would put those things away for now and revisit them when she was ready. While some readers may find this approach patronizing, I loved it. I loved that Wolk fully addressed the gaps in the story, especially those regarding Toby and Betty's respective pasts, let the reader know that those gaps were intentional, and then moved on, respecting the maturity level of her intended audience. She did not make light of the severity of her subject matter, but she also did not go in-depth into topics that would ultimately be irrelevant and inappropriate for this particular book. What's more, she subtly taught a valuable lesson to the reader, which is that the details of another person's life don't matter, what matters is how we respond to the individuals we come into contact with throughout our lives. Their story is their own, and we only need to focus on living our story, our life, the best that we can. Wolk did all of this while writing a book that was engaging, never bogged down in itself, and quick to get through so that even reluctant readers would be able to succeed in reading this novel and gaining wisdom from its pages.

Wolk, L. (2016). Wolf Hollow. Dutton Books for Young Readers.