Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk
The beautiful vignettes Wolk paints underscore this tranquil setting.
"The old barn taught me one of the most important lessons I was ever to learn: that the extraordinary can live in the simplest things... I loved the barn in fall, especially, when I'd often find my father there, mending wagon wheels, oiling the joints of wagon parts, and sometimes- as on that November day- napping in the hayloft, snoring softly in the dim, blue light." |
"It was dark when we reached the beet field, but we worked by the truck's headlamps and had enough beets for supper in no time at all... They didn't look like much, those beets. Tough skins clotted with dirt, hairy with fine roots, hard as stones. But inside were sweet rubies, eager to be warmed into softness. I longed for that order of things." |
"...I learned that what I said and what I did mattered. So much sometimes, that I wasn't sure I wanted such a burden. But I took it anyway, and I carried it as best I could." |
While the language and story often seem deceptively simple, it is after all, a story told through the eyes of an eleven-year-old girl, the concepts are deep and thought-provoking.
Wolves and hollows, pain and understanding are woven together in this compelling story. One that I will not soon forget.