Echo Mountain
by Lauren Wolk
Dutton Books For Young Readers
2020
368 pages
ISBN: 9780525555568
The Great Depression impacts twelve-year old Ellie and her family. Losing everything forces them to move from town to the wilds of Echo Mountain. Her father, a tailor by trade, must now learn a new life and become a rugged “mountain man.” Her mother tries her best to make things work and hold the family together.
Feeling free, Ellie explores the vast richness of her surroundings reveling in nature and finding joy by discovering this new world and its secrets, but when a terrible accident injures her father, Ellie takes unfair and silent blame from her family. She feels she must make it up to them, so she seeks out the help of a healer far up the mountain known only as “the hag.” Whispered about by the locals, the “hag” has become a mysterious (and feared) legend. Ellie believes her father’s only hope lies in a natural treatment the healer is sure to provide. In her quest to find the hag, Ellie finds her own inner strength.
Prose as beautifully resplendent as the mountain setting, Wolk delivers in this brilliant tale of resilience, determination and finding yourself. Echo Mountain is the rare coming of age story that will resonate with readers of all ages. Recommended for any classroom reading group or book club, and Echo Mountain would be a fine read for background history of The Great Depression.
HIghly, highly recommended grades 4 and up. Don't miss this book!
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