On Snowden Mountain

June 24, 2019
After 12-year-old Ellen’s father leaves to fight in WWII, her mother falls into her deepest depression yet, forcing Ellen to contact her dreaded aunt Pearl. Pearl, her mother’s sister, insists that the family leave Baltimore for her home in Snowden Mountain, Va., where the sisters grew up. There, Ellen, who is accustomed to electricity and fashionable clothes, is faced with an outhouse, oil lamps, and a one-room schoolhouse. At school, Ellen encounters Russell, an outcast who is grade levels behind and smells of skunk. Although she initially looks down on him, and much else about Snowden, Ellen learns that trapping skunks is how Russell supports his family, and when she visits his home to deliver food from the church, she sees how Russell’s father abuses and terrorizes his family. As a friendship grows, Ellen begins to feel that Russell understands her fear that she too will suffer depression, and Russell’s confidence rises when Ellen helps him with his studies. Through a realistically complex character whose growth is organic and well-wrought, Watts (A Piece of Home) offers an unsparing look at the impact of depression, as well as the ways that human connection can change lives. Ages 8–12.

July 1, 2019
When her mother falls into a catatonic depression, 12-year-old Ellen finds herself whisked from lively Baltimore to an obscure Blue Ridge mountain. It's 1942, and Ellen's daddy is off fighting in the war and Mama's hit one of her sad spells. Unable to cope, Ellen summons Mama's forbidding spinster sister, Pearl, who takes them both back to Virginia to live with her. There, Aunt Pearl tends to Mama while Ellen attends a one-room schoolhouse. One boy, a nearly illiterate 15-year-old named Russell, rarely comes to school, and when he does he smells strongly of the skunks he traps. When Aunt Pearl sends Ellen to Russell's house with food, she meets Russell's abused mother, a childhood friend of her mother's, and his abusive father. An odd friendship develops, in which Russell shows Ellen some of the beauties of the mountain forest, and she tutors him in reading and math. Meanwhile, Russell's mother tries to help Ellen's mother heal. Told from Ellen's first-person point of view, the novel has good sentence-level writing but falls short in two key points. Ellen often seems an observer in her own story, describing what happens to her but never really influencing the action. (Even her initial call for help happens offstage.) Also, the narrative arcs of the characters fail to satisfy--it's hard to see what each person wants or gains. The age difference between Russell and Ellen may cause some readers to find the relationship a bit creepy. The novel adheres to a white default. Smoothly written but not cohesive or memorable. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

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November 1, 2019

Gr 6-8-Watt's novel gently portrays a family struggling with depression during a time when such things were not well understood or discussed. The novel opens with twelve-year-old Ellen seeking help from an estranged aunt who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, far away from Baltimore where Ellen and her mother are barely surviving. Ellen's mother has fallen into a deep depression ever since her father left to "beat the hell out of Adolf Hitler." Aunt Pearl whisks them away to Snowden Mountain, much to Ellen's dismay, where Ellen will attend school in a defunct church with other children from the village. There she decides she will not make friends and will not be happy while she harbors fears of depression creeping into her own state of mind, like her mother's. Ellen eventually forms an unlikely friendship with an outcast who is battling his own family demons, and begins to trust the adults offering love and support. Watts's characters are thoughtful and well developed; readers will understand Ellen's feelings as she tries to sort through her family crisis. The villagers in Snowden believe Ellen's mother is frail and sad and do not comprehend the serious effects of depression on the whole family. Students who have personal experience with depression themselves or with loved ones will appreciate Watt's subtle depiction and the patience with which it is handled in the story. VERDICT An important book that has the ability to dispel misunderstandings about mental illness; recommended for all middle grade readers.-Kim Gardner, Fort Worth Country Day School, TX

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