Maw Books

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Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff is a 2003 Newbery Honor book and is worth every minute of the short read.  Hollis is twelve years old and stuck in the foster care system.  She is known as being a trouble maker and constantly runs away from the homes in which she is placed.  It’s  not as if her foster families really care anyways, like I said, she’s a trouble maker.

But Hollis finally makes a home for herself with the wonderful Regan family and for once she’s thinking of not running.  She is beginning to relax and can see herself finally shedding away her tough exterior.  But when an accident occurs, Hollis feels that she has no choice but to run again.  Her new family begs her to come back but betraying her own wants and desires she moves on.  This time she’s placed with an elderly woman, Josie, who unbeknownst to the foster care system is in the beginning stages of dementia.  Hollis likes  her a lot, because she used to be an art teacher and Hollis loves art more than anything.  When the system finally catches on to her situation and arranges Hollis to be transferred again, she knows that she must make a decision that will affect everybody around her.

The story is told in two alternating time lines, the time with Josie and the one with the Regan family.  We know of her past feelings of living with the family but are gradually given details on why she felt like she had to give it all up.  I loved Hollis.  I particularly enjoyed the thought process that she went through as she deals with the agony of being in the foster care system, feeling unloved, and how she begins to soften only to have it taken away all over again.

She’s the type of character that does frustrate you a little only because as a reader you know more than she does, you want to sit her down and say, “Now look here, what in the world are you doing?!  You can be happy if only you do this and this . . . “  And that’s why Pictures of Hollis Woods is a wonderful story because we want all of Hollis’ dreams to come true and we can’t put the book down until we find out if she has or not.

Pictures of Hollis Woods has been made into a Disney movie.  Here is the first bit of the film:

Has anybody seen the movie?  I think I’ll try to track it down.

Links of interest:  Maw Books review of Lily’s Crossing also by Patrica Reilly Giff.
Genre:  Juvenile Fiction.  Approx. ages 9-12
Published by Wendy Lamb Books.  September 10, 2002
Hardcover, 176 pages.  ISBN: 0385326556.
Pictures of Hollis Woods is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

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