Tearjerker

While I was at a Little Free Library a few weeks ago, searching for (and finding) a geocache, I took a minute to scan the book titles. I found this kid's book that I'd never heard of before, but it had the symbol of a Newbery Honor Book on the cover, so I snagged it.

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff is the story of a 10 year old girl lost to the foster child system. She was found in the woods as an infant, and has stayed with family after family her entire life. She's thought of as a troublemaker and angry. She doesn't like to give straight answers. When things get tough, she runs. Eventually she's found and dumped in another home.

Hollis is an artist. Quite a good one, at that. She draws pictures of her experiences. We get to hear the stories behind those pictures.

Eventually Hollis is placed with a family that wants to become her forever family. But there's an incident (hinted at throughout the book), that causes Hollis to run again. This time when she's caught, she's placed with an old woman who is an artist. It's a great match, except that the woman has early onstage dementia. As much as Hollis wants to stay, she'll be forced to move on again. So, she runs. 

This time she takes the old woman with her.

It's a lovely, lovely book with characters you want to care about. It all comes out well in the end, as you might expect. But it comes out even better than expected.

I absolutely love this book. Best book of children's literature I've read in a while. This book reminds me why I love Kid Lit so much.