Chapter Book #8

Author:  Patricia Reilly Giff
Title:  Pictures of Hollis Woods
Illustrator:  N/A
Readability score:  Grade 5 to Grade 8
Genre:  Fiction
Subgenre:  Realistic fiction
Theme:  In order to love, we must be loved.  Do not run from your feelings.
Primary and secondary characters:  Hollis Woods, Josie, Izzy, Old Man, Steven, Mustard Woman, Beatrice
Awards:  Newbery Honor Book
Date of Publication:  2002
Publication company:  Scholastic, Inc.
ISBN number:  0-439-57784-5

Hollis Woods was dropped off on a Brooklyn street corner when she was not even a day old.  Ever since then she has moved from one foster home to another.  Most of the time she runs away.  The foster care services call her trouble because she skips school and runs away so often.  Through flashbacks, the reader learns that Hollis has finally found a family that she really likes, the Regans.  Izzy, Old Man, and their son Steven want Hollis to become a part of their family after she stays with them at their summer home.  During the present time, Hollis is sent to live with an aging artist named Josie.  Josie makes wooden figures.  Hollis comes to love Josie because she forgets to send Hollis to school and they go on beach trips together.  Through her drawings, Hollis describes what it was like living with the Regans on the Old Man's mountain.  She wanted to climb the mountain when she was asked to live with the Regans forever.  Steven was the closest thing to a brother she had ever had.  Back in the present, Hollis knows she is about to be taken to another foster home but she doesn't want to leave Josie.  Josie needs someone to take care of her.  Hollis decides to run away in December.  She takes Josie with her and they go to the Regan's summer home, where she spent the last summer.  No one is there, so they make themselves comfortable.  The flashbacks continue.  The last weekend of the summer,  Hollis decides to climb the mountain by herself.  She makes it to the top, but on the way down she falls.  She knows she can't make it down by herself.  Luckily, Steven knows she where she is gone.  He drives the Old Man's truck up the mountain and rescues her.  As they are driving down, he loses control of the truck in the mud and the truck flips.  Old Man and Izzy don't blame Hollis for the accident, but she knows it's her fault.  She decides to run away when she finds out Steven will be alright.  That's how she meets Josie.  At the end of the book, Steven meets Hollis walking through the snow to town.  She realizes that she belongs with the Regans.  She arranges for Josie to live with her artist friend, Beatrice.  They remain friends and Hollis finally finds her place in the world with the Regans.

This book is written in such a way that it tells two stories at once.  The author switches between the present time and the past.  I would have the students document a special time in their life the same way Hollis did.  The students would create series of pictures that tell their story.  The pictures do not have to be perfect.  The students can use whichever medium that they would like.  They could draw sketches, paint, create a collage, or use crayons.  The purpose of the activity is to allow the students to tell a story in such a way that does not use words.