Wolf Hollow
Written by Lauren Wolk

Publisher’s Summary:
Growing up in the shadows cast by two world wars, Annabelle has lived a mostly quiet, steady life in her small Pennsylvania town. Until the day new student Betty Glengarry walks into her class. Betty quickly reveals herself to be cruel and manipulative, and while her bullying seems isolated at first, things quickly escalate, and reclusive World War I veteran Toby becomes a target of her attacks. While others have always seen Toby’s strangeness, Annabelle knows only kindness. She will soon need to find the courage to stand as a lone voice of justice as tensions mount.

Primary Source Pairing:
The setting of Wolf Hollow is one that may only be familiar to some readers: a rural community where people rely on the land and each other for survival. When this story takes place in wartime America, Annabelle and her brothers and neighbors attend school in a one-room schoolhouse. This setting is likely unfamiliar to most readers. The schoolhouse is a focal point of the plot of Wolf Hollow, as is getting to the schoolhouse and coming home from it.

For this primary source pairing, invite students to investigate and analyze images from one-room schoolhouses in Pennslyvania in the 1940’s. Encourage students to find connections from the text to what they see in the photographs and to find parallels between their school experiences and the ones they observe from the 1940’s. Four images are included above. Use the images as a set or instruct students to find one with which they most connect to do the primary source analysis.

Questions for Discussion:

• Describe what you see.
• What do you notice first?
• What people and objects are shown?
• How are they arranged?
• What is the physical setting?
• What’s happening in the image?
• If someone made this today, what would be different?
• What would be the same?
• How does this image connect to the text of Wolf Hollow?
• Make a connection to the images of the one-room schoolhouse and your own schooling experience.

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
Boy at Desk Looking Forward Photograph: Library of Congress
Boy at Desk Smiling Photograph: Library of Congress
One-Room Schoolhouse Photograph: Library of Congress
Teacher with Students Photograph: Library of Congress