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Read Pictures Of Hollis Woods (2004)

Pictures of Hollis Woods (2004)

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Rating
3.99 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0439692393 (ISBN13: 9780440415787)
Language
English
Publisher
scholastic

Pictures Of Hollis Woods (2004) - Plot & Excerpts

This book is different. It’s not just a novel with words and pages and chapter titles. It’s not just a story. It’s a picture. The author has painted us a picture, one long, deep, full picture of Hollis Woods, a tough orphan no one can handle. Nothing has been left out of this picture. We see Hollis, see right through her toughness, see her from different angles, see her until we know the real Hollis Woods. And that Hollis Woods just wants a family. Just wants to belong. It’s a touching, poignant picture, brimming with depth and emotion. Everything is real. Everything is fresh and clear and easy to reach out and touch. I love this book. It reads simple, it reads clear, but there’s so much more underneath the words, underneath the paint. It has emotion and feeling and character and depth and reality. And it’s beautiful. I love Hollis Woods’s “pictures”. They come between the chapters, giving you glimpses of the Regan family and that precious summer Hollis had with them. I like the way the author splatters words together. It’s so much like paint, really, when you think about it. An artist brushes paint over a clean white page. An author wipes words across theirs. But I think Patricia Reilly Giff did both. I preferred Hollis’s writing to the actual dialogue. The book’s in first person (my favourite), so you’re looking at the world through Hollis’s eyes the whole time. I liked the flow of Hollis’s thinking, the way her words mixed and matched together to create chapters of flowing, beautiful prose. But the dialogue didn’t grab me as much. It felt strangely average in such an excellent book. I liked it though. Alright…loved it. I loved every bit of this book. I wanted the end…but I didn’t want the end. I'm sure you know how that feels, right?

When I finished reading this book I actually gave a little yell of happiness. I knew there was a good reason why I wanted to re-read this book. I had read it a couple years back and wanted to know for sure why I had liked it so much the first time around.The book touches on what is most important in life and we are shown this by a girl named Hollis Woods. (btw I thought the name was pretty unique) Hollis has been toted around from foster home to foster home. She is good at running away and pushing people away. Things change though when she is given to the Regans for one summer.I totally fell in love with the Regans. They are so perfect for Hollis. Steven (the son of the Regans) is the epitome of what a brother should and could be.The book is set up between the time she spends with Josie (her newest foster parent, and a rich character in the story), and the time she spent that summer with the Regans. There is a huge event that happens during that summer which is witheld from the reader, but slowly but surely it is revealed to us. I was still anticipating what would happen to Hollis even though I already knew what happened. An extremely talented author can do that.Hollis's drawings came to life to me and I could actually see in my mind how real her art was. I was also glad that they mentioned food a lot in the book. Too many books leave that important part of life out. I genuinely was happy for Hollis like she was a real person, but then I thought to myself that is what makes this story so grand; Hollis could be a real little girl and this could actually happen for her.Even though this book is only 160 odd pages it packs a big punch. The author waste no words and gets the message across clearly that we all just want to belong.

What do You think about Pictures Of Hollis Woods (2004)?

As if brushing color subtly onto grained paper, Patricia Reilly Giff sketches pictures of hollis woods, modeling eleven-year-old self-described "mountain of trouble" Hollis Woods with word-pictures of her Wish to find a place to fit in.Hollis surprises you. Yes, she's expectedly crusty around the edges, defensive on the outside, ready to slip quickly away from any foster home she doesn't like with "running money," as she calls it. She finds tentative space in the home of artist Josie Cahill and her cat, Henry. But, as we learn through "pictures," she also has a soft, summer center of light and color that searches for expression and outlet. We discover she was lucky enough to have found a family where she felt a comfortable peace, until she pushed her luck, and precipitated a series of accidents that had consequence. Told in concurrent episodes, Hollis runs away from her agency keepers, even taking her mentor Josie, whose mind is slowly drifting away like the snowflakes that drift down around them during their winter holiday.Given a second chance, Hollis surprises us with an integrity hardly seen at such an age, and makes a significant choice, possibly destroying her own hope for happiness, in an effort to protect the family she has come to love.pictures of hollis woods is a wonderfully subtle brushed portrait anyone can appreciate.
—J.R. Tompkins

Pictures of Hollis Woods By Patricia Reilly GiffThis book is a book that will touch your heart, “Pictures of Hollis Woods”, by Patricia Reilly Giff. This is a very good book to read when you are feeling sad or depressed. It really brings out the inner “you “. Hollis had never known how it felt to be truly loved, until she met her foster parent Josie. The downside of Hollis and Josie having an incredible bond is that Josie is loosing her memory. If the secret service finds this out, Hollis has to be sent to another foster home. Since Hollis is known of being a girl that escapes from her homes, they are expecting her to run away. This time Hollis wasn’t the only one running away, Josie was too. I also like this book because, the unexpected happens. Hollis is a very clever girl that does what she wants. I think I relate to her because if there was someone I loved and I knew I was going to be separated from them, I would do anything I could think of to escape it. Even though most people would say Hollis is insane for running away from her foster homes, I think she has the right to do what she wants. With her being a foster kid, she probably thinks different about her self then other kids. I believe that she deserves more attention, because she has gone through more dramatic phases in throughout her life.
—Tina Shelstrom

What a great picture book for older readers! Pictures of Hollis Woods takes the reader through a series of beautiful pictures that tells this child's story of growing up within the foster care system. This child moves from home to home, and finally finds a place that she wants to stay for a while. Once here with her new care taker, Hollis will do whatever it takes to stay in this home. This is a great story for students to begin to understand the struggles that some children must face at such a young age. Teachers can use this book for many different purposes and adults can use this book as a great conversation starter with children who may be going through something similar. Overall, a great read!
—L13_Meghan

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