Hope in the Holler

In a youthful, sensitive voice, narrator Catherine Taber delivers the first-person story of 12-year-old Wavie. Taber expresses the depths of Wavie's grief at the loss of her mother and the powerful memories that sustain her. These contrast sharply with Taber's portrayal of Wavie's self-interested aunt, Samantha Rose, who whisks the orphaned girl away to Conley Hollow, a place Wavie's mother fought to escape. Taber's performance reflects how deeply Wavie's mother has planted love and a belief in herself in her child, which contrast with the painful emotional starkness of her life with her cruel aunt and cousin. The love she's experienced gives Wavie the resilience to oppose Samantha Rose's guardianship, find friends who support her, and fulfill her mother's wish that she find the good life she deserves. Taber's well-drawn portrayals of minor characters increase the audio's richness. S.W. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine