In the last few years, I have heard the great American classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, frequently being recommended for middle-grade readers. I staunchly disagree with the general practice of recommending that tough book to readers below eleventh grade. Could there be a particular child for whom it is a good fit? Maybe. But, it is my opinion that that essential work of American fiction was written for adults and should be considered worthy of waiting for. Even if a middle-grade reader could handle the darkness, I wonder if they could really grasp the fullness of the story and its power at such a young age.
Some have mentioned that Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk would be a better fit for a younger crowd looking for a story set in small-town America about a misunderstood social outcast. I was curious, so I read it this weekend. I see why some think that way. I see the appeal of this story. I see how easily it could be fairly compared to Mockingbird. I agree this could be a good substitute for Mockingbird if there were a reason to wrestle with these themes. I ask, however, if something else might be better for a young reader and better overall?
I do not, however, like Wolf Hollow even a fraction as much as I love To Kill a Mockingbird. And I am a little unsettled about why that is. In this story, the protagonist might be more likable than Scout. The maligned outcast is more sympathetic than Boo Radley. And the parents are more attentive than Atticus. The writing is excellent. The story is interesting. And the way Americans treated Germans during WWII is good for us to grapple with.
I think that what mars the story for me is that the burdens on the protagonist are inappropriate for the target age of the readers. Annabelle adopts some troubling behavior that is unnecessary and designed only to further the plot. And some of the events of the story are almost as graphic and disturbing as Mockingbird.
I found myself depressed and frustrated throughout the story, and I didn’t find a powerful redeeming theme. I know that we are supposed to be cheering for Annabelle because she is so brave and strong, but I find myself wanting to take her into my arms, to hug her, and then promptly ground her until she learns to be more honest and trustworthy. While the villains in the story are true villains, Annabelle in her immaturity, makes things more complicated than necessary and ultimately deadly.
I have written and re-written this review many times. I have strong opinions about this book, but I think my role here is to serve you by giving you the details that you may wish to know so you can make your own decision. To that end, I will continue with spoilers from here on out.
If you wish to know more about this book without explicit spoilers, head over to Biblioguides to see their content considerations.
***SPOILERS***
This story is set in a small Pennsylvania town in 1943. Annabelle lives on a family farm with her brothers, parents, aunt, and grandparents. Annabelle’s parents are strong and sensible people who remind me of Alonso Wilder’s parents or Mary Emma Moody. She and her brothers walk to a one-room school much like that of Farmer Boy or Little Britches, with a strong and solid teacher.
When Betty comes to live with her grandparents, the trouble begins. Betty is a duplicitous and mean girl with malicious behavior. She is capable of violence and uses it to intimidate Annabelle regularly. For reasons that make no sense to me, Annabelle decides not to confide in her good and attentive parents and is willing to steal from her aunt instead to prevent Betty from hurting her brothers.
Toby is a WWI veteran who lives a solitary life in an old shack away from everyone else. A quiet man who is misunderstood by the community, he has a small friendship with Annabelle’s family. When Toby witnesses Betty’s violence against Annabelle, he intervenes and threatens the bully.
Andy is a rough boy who attends school only infrequently. He reminds me of the boys that give the teacher in Farmer Boy so much trouble. When he appears at school and demands Betty’s desk from her, he is shocked to find that she is not going to budge. An unlikely romance between bullies is born.
For the rest of the book, Betty and Andy get into all kinds of trouble together, and it is very clear that they are romantically involved. While it is unclear how far they go, they are frequently sneaking away from school to be together. Given the similar feel to Mockingbird, I spent most of the book fearing that she was going to end up pregnant and would blame Toby for raping her. That doesn’t happen, but I can’t be the only person who worried that it was coming.
What Betty and Andy do, however, is grisly. In an attempt to harm a German-American farmer, Betty throws a rock at him. She misses but hits Annabelle’s friend instead. The rock is described as being too small to be blocked by the bone and too large not to destroy the eye. The little girl loses her eye. And, of course, Betty blames Toby.
Later on, Annabelle and her brothers are walking home from school. James falls to the ground screaming in pain. He hit a wire that had been strung between two trees, lacerating his forehead. Had Annabelle or her other brother hit that wire, they could have been decapitated. Betty and Andy sharpened that wire and hung it on the road.
When Betty doesn’t show up at school one day, Andy comes looking for her. That night, she is still missing. For two days, the entire town, and strangers far and wide, are on a manhunt trying to find the missing girl. Ultimately, she is found halfway down a well near Toby’s shack. She is impaled on a pipe and her injury is gangrenous. It is Toby who risks his life to climb down and rescue her. At the hospital, she tells the doctors that Toby pushed her down the well and left her for dead. When she doesn’t survive her injuries, the town cannot believe anything good about Toby.
Toby did not push Betty down well. Betty came to Toby’s shack to do him harm. Toby was away hunting, so she planted the wire in his shack for the constable to find. When she left, it was raining and very wet, and she fell down the well with no one knowing where she was.
The truth cannot outrun the mob. Toby is shot and killed by the police before anyone knows what really happened.
When Annabelle is hiding Toby from everyone, they have a short moment of connection. It is tender but hard. Toby tells her some of his war secrets and we are forced to hear him describe how men sound when they are dying on the battlefield. It is brief but memorable. Later he apologizes for burdening her innocence with it. Sadly, he cannot apologize to our children who are now forced to know that truth.
After he is dead and buried, we learn that Toby was a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. His reclusive life was because of his insurmountable guilt from the war. I appreciate how important that theme is. I wish there was more of that and less of Betty’s violence.
When I read the reviews on the back of the book, I am perplexed. Publishers Weekly says this is a story about Annabelle’s loss of innocence. I guess that is right. I am not ready for it to be the loss of innocence for my little people.