Joann's Review of Pictures of Hollis Woods

I always love a good story about a person struggling to find their place in the world. It's hard for me to resist an underdog. Hollis Woods is a twelve-year old-girl that was abandoned by her mother at birth and has been bounced around from foster home to foster home. As can be expected, Hollis is hurt and angry and doesn't always make the best choices. While Hollis certainly contributes to her own problems, she is misunderstood. She really just wants a place to call home and people to call her family. In Pictures of Hollis Woods, Patricia Reilly Giff gives us some insight into what it must be like to be a young person in the system. Hollis, who is gifted artistically, says through her drawings what she is afraid to say out loud. Will Hollis find the family she has always longed for? Will she ever have a place to call home? Read this heartwarming story to find out.

"Hollis Woods is a touching story that you never want to stop reading. I loved Hollis would and I think Patricia Reilly Giff has done it again with this Newberry Award winner." - buildingrainbows.com

Joann's Review of Taking Liberty

When I was four, my daddy left, I cried, but I understood. He had become part of the Gone.

Taking Liberty by Ann Rinaldi is a historical fiction novel set in the time during the Revolutionary War and George Washington's presidency. While it is considered historical fiction, most of the story is based on real people in history and the facts historians know to be true about George Washington and his plantation. The story is told from the point of view of a young slave girl. Oney Judge has grown up on George Washington's plantation in Mount Vernon and her mother has groomed her to be chosen as a household servant in order to have some of the privileges most slaves only dream about. Oney soon becomes Martha Washington's personal servant and considers herself to be a member of Washington's family, but her place in the household jeopardizes her relationship with her the person who fought so hard to get her there. As good as Oney has it, she begins to realize that she is and will always be a slave. She is torn between her loyalty to the Washingtons and her own desire to be free. Will she choose to run as her mama has told her to do when she gets a chance or will she stay knowing now that she is only someone's property? This is a great story that gives us a different picture of America during the Revolutionary War and gives us some insight into the system of slavery that was a way of life here, even for our first President.

"This memorable heroine and novel offer a thought-provoking exploration of the courage needed to grasp freedom." - Publishers Weekly