Pictures of Hollis Woods

Starred review from November 11, 2002
Adult actors/narrators frequently face the challenge of making a child protagonist seem fully realized. Davis (Next Stop Wonderland)
handles the situation with great aplomb, becoming 12-year-old Hollis Woods, an orphan in the foster care system with a heartbreaking and quietly triumphant story to tell. With an appropriately youthful, but not affected, voice, Davis (as Hollis) immediately invites listeners to follow an emotional and physical journey. Abandoned as an infant in a place called Hollis Woods, young Hollis dreams of having a true family—a wish that is the theme of many of the accomplished drawings she creates. Instead, she has been shuffled to various foster homes that don't quite fit. All that changes when she meets the Regans—a kind and friendly mother, father and son who are eager to welcome and love her. But Hollis's skewed image of herself (reinforced by some caretakers) as a tough "mountain of trouble" clouds her judgment and nearly destroys her chance for happiness. Throughout, Hollis shows her sensitive heart (made all the more poignant by Davis's interpretation), especially when she lives with Josie, an elderly foster parent who comes to depend on her. Giff's fine novel, told in alternating flashback chapters, is easier than expected to follow on audio, thanks to Davis's memorable performance. Simultaneous release with the Random/Lamb hardcover.
Ages 8-up.

July 15, 2002
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.