Mary Wolf - Softcover

Grant, Cynthia D.

3.79

78 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689812515 ISBN 13: 9780689812514

Publisher: Simon Pulse, 1997

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Sixteen-year-old Mary tries to keep her family together as they aimlessly travel the country after her father's business fails and he starts to change

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-10?Sixteen-year-old Mary Wolf's life is far from stable. When her father's business folded, he packed up the family in the RV and began a cross-country trek. As the story begins, they have been on the road for a long time, have no money left, and Mama steals from stores and neighbors and resells the merchandise at flea markets. Escaping a possible arrest, the family flees to California and comes upon a decrepit beach campsite where other destitute families live. Mary meets Rocky, a ray of hope and friendship in the form of an 18-year-old runaway. It seems as though the Wolfs may settle there, at least "until they get back on their feet." But when state troopers inform them that the area must be evacuated, Mary and her father discover that the camper is in need of a new engine. He falls into a deep and desperate depression and takes the only action he can think of. And Mary has to confront him with a gun?for he has stolen a neighbor's weapon, shot her mother, and is holding her siblings hostage. Grant's story is set in the starkly realistic world of homeless families. Her gripping prose flows from Mary's first-person narrative, which reveals an adolescent who lives with the frustration of a life that has been forced upon her. The tension suspensefully builds throughout, and with each crisis, readers are drawn towards the sadly powerful climax. This novel successfully personalizes a contemporary tragedy and is a worthwhile addition to most YA collections.?Jana R. Fine, Clearwater Public Library System, FL
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

At 16, Mary Wolf seems to be the only adult in her family. Her father, once an insurance executive, lost his job long ago and with it, apparently, his backbone. For two years the Wolfs have been traveling in an RV as the increasingly volatile Mr. Wolf occasionally lands and quickly loses menial jobs, supplementing his income with petty thievery and clumsy scams. Crippled by pride, he tells lies that Mrs. Wolf is all too eager to believe and that Mary's little sisters are too young to see through. Only Mary challenges him, but she cannot prevent him from driving the family into certain catastrophe. As in her dramatic psychological thriller Uncle Vampire, Grant establishes the desperation of lives ruled by nightmare, drawing the threads of her narrative ever tighter so that only extraordinary force can alter her characters' destinies. The climax is violent but not exploitative-it delivers a strongly cathartic jolt as the author expertly releases the reader from her darkly absorbing story. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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