![]() ![]() Pros: Lauren Wolk has crafted another beautifully written historical fiction novel featuring a strong girl protagonist with a unique perspective and set of talents. While Ellie’s mother is suspicious of Cate, Ellie finds her friendship with the older woman and her grandson a lifeline, and is certain they can help wake up her father and restore him to health. ![]() Cate’s grandson, Larkin, becomes a good friend, and Ellie is finally able to tell someone her secret: she didn’t cause her father’s accident, as her family thinks, but she’s letting them believe it to protect Esther and her younger brother Samuel. Ellie learns some occasionally stomach-turning healing techniques (maggots, vinegar poured into the wound) from Cate as she works to save her. Feeling alone, she wanders up the mountain to the home of a legendary “hag”, who turns out to be an ordinary old woman named Cate with a life-threatening leg injury. When their father is hit by a falling tree and lapses into a coma, it falls on Ellie to do much of the work he did. Ellie and her father love the self-sufficiency of the farm, while her mother and older sister Esther hate it. ![]() ![]() Summary: Ellie’s family has moved to a farm on a mountain in Maine after losing almost all their money in the Great Depression. ![]()
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