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.

Comments

Dragon Run

Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews Scholastic, 2013. 336 pgs. Fantasy Al Pilgrommor is excited for Testing Day, when he will receive his rank, a tattooed number on the back of his neck, and a path forward to his future occupation and life. He feels confident because his parents were fours on a scale of seven, but he is worried for his friend Wisp who doesn't have much of a chance of scoring above a two at best. But when Al is scored a zero, he not only has no prospects, he may lose his life as the dreaded Cullers are unleashed to kill him and his family to purify the land's bloodlines. Al's world is ruled by dragons--the lords and supposed creators of humankind--so he thinks that even if he survives, he will have to make his living as a beggar or thief. But when Al sticks up for his Earther friend in front of Magister Ludi, he is drawn into the struggle of a secret organization hoping to destroy the Cullers, and perhaps the dragons them...

Painting for Peace in Ferguson

Painting for Peace in Ferguson By Carol Swartout Klein Treehouse Publishing Group, 2015. Nonfiction. When the city of Ferguson was overrun with so much hate and despair that homes and businesses had to be boarded up to protect property, citizens of the community decided to bring a message of hope by painting the boarded windows. Klein’s rhyming text supports the photographs of the hundreds of artists and volunteers and their artwork as they bring the messages of peace, hope, love, and that by being united they can make a difference. A great book to show children how a community rallied to make a positive change and that even a small gesture can make a huge difference. A great discussion opener on how we should treat each other.

Review: The Bletchley Riddle

The Bletchley Riddle By Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024. Fiction. 392 pages. It's spring of 1940, Hitler has swept through most of Europe, and people believe England will be next. Half Polish-Jewish, half American Jakob has been recruited from Cambridge to Bletchley Park where they are working on deciphering the enigma machine. Jakob's sister Lizzie, meanwhile, is being forced to move from London to Cleveland to live with her grandmother after her mother disappeared in a 1939 attack in Poland. Lizzie manages to escape the keeper her grandmother sent for her to bring her to America and makes her way to Bletchley, where she's eventually given the task of delivering messages between departments. When secret messages begin appearing with Lizzie's belongings, she must decipher them to find the truth about her mother's past and location, while keeping the secrets away from the MI5 agent that seems a little t...

Provo Library Children's Book Blog

Search This Blog