Pictures of Hollis Woods [LARGE PRINT] (Hardcover)

by Patricia Reilly Giff (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Giff (Lily s Crossing; All the Way Home) again introduces a carefully delineated and sympathetic heroine in this quiet contemporary novel. Artistically talented Hollis Woods, age 12, has made a habit of running away from foster homes, but she s found a place on Long Island where she wants to stay for a while. She immediately bonds with Josie, her new guardian, who is a slightly eccentric, retired art teacher. Yet Hollis is far from content. She worries about Josie s increasing forgetfulness, and she sorely misses her last foster family, the Regans, whom she left under tense circumstances that are only gradually made clear. Giff intersperses tender scenes demonstrating Hollis s growing affection for Josie with memories of the Regans, whose images Hollis preserves in her sketchbook. Pictures of motherly Izzy Regan, her architect husband and their mischievous yet compassionate son, Steven, sensitively express the young artist s conception of a perfect family. As readers become intimately acquainted with Hollis, they will come to understand her fears, regrets and longings, and will root for her as she pursues her dream of finding a home where she belongs. Ages 8-13.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal
Grade 4-7-Abandoned at birth, Hollis Woods has lived in about a half dozen homes and has always wished for a family. A foster caretaker describes her as "a mountain of trouble." When Josie Cahill, a retired art teacher, takes the 12-year-old into her home on Long Island, NY, the two bond almost immediately. Hollis draws pictures with colored pencils and Josie carves branches into people. However, it soon becomes clear that Josie has trouble remembering things, and Hollis becomes the caregiver. When she stops attending school, a social worker comes by to investigate. Flashbacks slowly illuminate Hollis's life with one family who had hoped to adopt her and why this didn't happen. Giff masterfully weaves these two strands together in a surprising and satisfying ending. Strong characterization and a solid sense of place are the strengths of this heartfelt story that will appeal to fans of Sharon Creech's Ruby Holler (2002), Katherine Paterson's The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978, both HarperCollins), and Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Gib Rides Home (Delacorte, 1998).
Jean Gaffney, Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library, Miamisburg, OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 158 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press; 1 edition (March 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439579317
• ISBN-13: 978-0786250943
• ASIN: 0786250941
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (150 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #567,530 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Story of a Wonderful Character, August 29, 2003

By	Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Pictures of Hollis Woods (Newbery Honor Book) (Hardcover)

Pictures of Hollis Woods is the very moving story of an abandoned girl who has difficulty fitting into foster homes and is constantly getting in trouble for running away. What we get in this novel are two narratives: one in the present as Hollis tries to fit in with Josie, an older woman slowing succumbing to dementia; and one in the form of flashbacks told through description of pictures Hollis has drawn which tells the story of the previous summer when Hollis thought she had finally found a home. Slowly, these two stories are drawn together as Hollis tries to protect herself and Josie as well as come to terms with the events of the previous summer.

All in all, Ms. Giff has written a wonderful novel. The switching between the two plots in handled well and Hollis is a beautifully drawn character. She is difficult and introverted, but she is an artist and is ultimately able to overcome her defensiveness and become part of a family--even an extended family. I would highly recommend this novel to young and old alike.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: PICTURES OF HOLLIS WOODS, October 3, 2002

By	Richie Partington "http://richiespicks.com" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Pictures of Hollis Woods (Library Binding)

"This picture has a dollop of peanut butter on one edge, a smear of grape jelly on the other, and an X across the whole thing. I cut it out of a magazine for homework when I was six years old. 'Look for words that begin with W,' my teacher, Mrs. Evans, had said.
"She was the one who marked in the X, spoiling my picture. She pointed. ' This is a picture of a family, Hollis. A mother, M, a father, F, a brother, B, a sister, S. They're standing in front of their house, H. I don't see one W word here, young lady.'
"I opened my mouth to say: How about W for wish, or W for want, or W for 'Wouldn't it be loverly,' like the song the music teacher had taught us?
"But Mrs. Evans was at the next table by that time, shushing me over her shoulder."

PICTURES OF HOLLIS WOODS is one of this year's most beautiful and most well-crafted tales. With the piles of new books I have waiting for me to read, it is rare for me to read a book twice, no less twice in successive days. But that's how strongly this one has affected me.

"...'Drawing is what you see of the world, truly see.'
" 'Yes, maybe,' I said, not sure what she meant.
" 'And sometimes what you see is so deep in your head you're not even sure of what you're seeing. But when it's down there on paper, and you look at it, really look, you'll see the way things are...' "

Hollis Woods is an artistic foster child whose troubled past has been marked by a succession of stops:

"There was the green house where the door didn't quite close; the wind blew in and up the stairs, rattling the window panes. The white house: crumbs on the table, kids fighting over a bag of Wonder bread. The yellow house: sooty, a long-haired woman with braids, no rugs on the stairs, the loud sound of feet going up and down..."

But Hollis Woods dreams of having a family. And she nearly got her wish thanks to the Regans--the Old Man, Izzie, and Steven--who had taken her in for a summer in Upstate New York.

Then something destroyed that perfect picture, and Hollis, who has now been placed in the home of the beautiful, old artist, Josie Cahill, is trying to come to terms with what happened last summer...and trying to deal with the secret of why Josie might have to be taken away from her, too.

"I frowned. 'Look at a picture one way and you'll see one thing,' I said. 'Look again and you might see something else. That's what the Old Man...' I shook my head. 'A friend of mine said that once.'

" 'Ah, yes,' Beatrice said, sketching in an eye, bushy eyebrows, sharp lashes as she spoke. 'But that's the world, isn't it? You have to keep looking to find the truth.' "

PICTURES OF HOLLIS WOODS is a poignant story of family and how those without traditional families frequently fall prey to The System. It includes the mystery about the summer's tragedy, and a love story about water. The author, who grew up around the corner from my Dad's family in Queens and not far from the community of Hollis Woods, sketches vivid landscapes of the woods and the water--the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware River. Both simple and deceptively complex, this book could be taught to high school students as well as older grade school kids.

Patricia Reilly Giff also fills her canvas with some of the most memorable people you'll ever meet, and who you'll certainly want to stay in touch with long after finishing the book. In fact, I'm not near ready to put this book down--it promises to be my first Lunchtime Read Aloud, once school resumes in September.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
[e-mail]

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Step down, Gilly Hopkins, December 4, 2003

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Pictures of Hollis Woods (Newbery Honor Book) (Hardcover)

A book so sad I could not but cry. The book has a couple similarities to "The Great Gilly Hopkins", in terms of plot and genre. In both cases you have a female orphan with a mind of her own who really just wants to be loved. Hollis Woods was a well thought out character and the author had a strong sense of how a kid feels when they've been abandoned regularly. She also understood the guilt kids feel about what they've done. It is completely believable that Hollis wouldn't want to return to the Regans (the loving family to whom she briefly belongs) after believing she got Steven (their son) nearly killed and is destroying the family's relationships. She thinks she's poison to those she loves. I haven't cried at the end of a book in a long time, but I sobbed (SOBBED I TELLS YE) with this one. The form is a little difficult to get a handle on, initially. I don't think this book would read aloud very well in a classroom situation. Reading one chapter one day and another chapter the next would only confuse the kids and they would be unable to understand what happens when. Once you understand what the author is doing, however, the book should be easy to get through. Not for beginning readers, just the same.