But Betty, the villain of the piece, isn’t your average mean girl. I understand that “Wolf Hollow” is going to be categorized and tagged as a “bully book” for years to come, and I get that. So if you’re the kind of reader who prefers to be surprised, walk on.įirst and foremost, let’s talk about why this book was rough going for me. I’ve puzzled it over but I can’t for the life of me figure out how I’d be able to discuss what Wolk’s doing here without giving away large chunks o’ plot. Right off the bat I’m going to tell you that this is a spoiler-rific review. Now Annabelle finds herself trying to figure out what is right, what is wrong, and whether lies can ever lead people to the truth. And then, when things look particularly bad, Betty disappears. There’s an incident that comes close to beheading someone. That’s when Betty begins a more concentrated campaign of pain. Annabelle is saved from Betty’s threats by Toby, a war veteran with issues of his own.

Within days of her arrival she’s threatened Annabelle and said in no uncertain terms that unless she’s brought something special she’ll take it out on the girl’s little brothers. Betty looks the part of the blond, blue-eyed innocent, but that exterior hides a nasty spirit. It is fair to say that if Betty Glengarry hadn’t moved to western Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1943 then Annabelle would not have needed to become a liar later. And you know what? The book might be right.

Even when the ending may not be the happy one everyone expects. A compelling author, the book is making the assumption that child readers will want to see what happens to its characters, even when the foreshadowing is so thick you’d need a knife to cut through it. In her debut children’s book, Lauren Wolk dives head first into difficult material. So when I flipped to the back of Wolf Hollow mid-way through reading it, I want to tell you that I did so not because I wanted to spoil the ending for myself but because I honestly couldn’t turn another page until I knew precisely how everything was going to fall out. Even so, that doesn’t mean that I don’t sometimes have difficulty with books written for, oh say, 10-year-olds. There’s always a undercurrent of hope running through the book, promising that maybe we don’t live in a cold, cruel, calculating universe that cares for us not one jot. Disturbing elements are kept at a minimum. I might puff myself up with a defense that lists the many fine aspects of this particular type of writing and believe it too, but sometimes when you catch me in a weak moment I might confess that another reason I like reading books for kids is that the content is so very “safe” in comparison to books for adults. This is probably why I primarily consume children’s literature. I am not what you might call a very brave reader. Dutton Children’s Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House)

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