Insta Review: Wolf Hollow, by Lauren Wolk

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Beautiful cover hiding a dark and captivating story. Annabelle is just wishing her life in Wolf Hollow was more exciting when a new girl named Betsy moves from the city to stay with her grandparents. Betsy is a bully in every sense of the word, and she is determined to shake Wolf Hollow to its core. Although many suffer from her mischief, she fixates on destroying Toby, the cryptic war veteran that wanders around the Hollow, silent and unattached. When Betsy disappears, the town comes together to try and find her before its too late – and to figure out where they can place their blame. I’ve heard it described as a story about kindness and bullying, but that was not what I took from Wolf Hollow. I saw it instead as a sobering tale about lies, trust, and the pieces of ourselves that we push down to the very bottom, hoping that no one else will ever discover them. Dark subjects include physical violence and injury, severe consequences, missing and injured children, and PTSD. Listed as grades 5-8, but I would only suggest this to my most mature fifth graders. Serious readers will enjoy, but middle-graders looking for a fun and fluffy story won’t make it through the first few chapters of shivers and goosebumps.

A post shared by Ms. Fitz (she/her) (@fitzbetweentheshelves) on Feb 10, 2017 at 9:00am PST