Hope in the Holler

Hope in the Holler
By Lisa Lewis Tyre
Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018. Fiction, 214 p.

It had always just been Wavie Conley and her mama and it worked, until her mama, Ronelda, got sick. Before Mama passed away she left Wavie with a list of instructions, including "Be brave, Wavie B.! You got as much right to a good life as anybody, so find it!" Right after the funeral Wavie is with her caseworker as a woman comes up and says " Wavie?  . . . I'm your aunt, Samantha Rose! I've come to take care of you." Wavie's mama hadn't ever mentioned a sister.

The courts approve to have Samantha Rose be Wavie's temporary guardian while they work on the paperwork to make it final. She goes back to the trailer park her mama grew up in called Conley Hollow. Although she gets to sleep in her mama's old bed, in her mama's old bedroom, living with Samantha Rose and her cousin Hoyt is terrible. It becomes clear, she is only there for the family to collect her Social Security check. No one in the house cares about her. She does meets some true friends in the neighborhood, Gilbert and Camille. Together they find clues to Waive's past and a possible solution to Wavie's current living situation.