Starred review from March 27, 2017
Creating mystery and suspense in an unusual setting, Newbery Honor–winner Wolk (Wolf Hollow) spins an intriguing tale of an orphan determined to find her roots, set in the 1920s. As a baby, Crow was found in a boat washed up on a (fictional) Massachusetts island. Osh, the introverted painter who found her, named her and took her in. Since then, Crow has enjoyed a tranquil existence, except for being ostracized by those who believe she came from nearby Penikese Island, which housed lepers. When Crow, now 12, spots a fire across the water on Penikese, her curiosity is awakened. After persuading Osh and their friend Miss Maggie to investigate, she takes the first step in an emotional quest to discover who her parents were. Crow is a determined and dynamic heroine with a strong intuition, who pieces together the puzzle of her past while making profound realizations about the definition of family. Wolk’s economical prose clearly delineates Crow’s conflicting emotions and growing awareness, and readers will feel the love and loyalty that she, Osh, and Miss Maggie share. Ages 10–up. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.

Starred review from April 15, 2017
This book will make people want to run away to the Elizabeth Islands.It's the 1920s. Crow and her adoptive father, Osh, live in a tiny house on a tiny island off Cape Cod, but her descriptions make it seem strange and mysterious. The cottage is "built from bits of lost ships," and it's full of found treasures: "a pair of sun-white whale ribs arched over our doorway, a tarnished ship's bell hanging from their pinnacle." Every chapter in the book has a new mystery to be solved: why was Crow sent away in an old boat when she was a baby? Why is a fire burning on an abandoned island? Did Capt. Kidd really hide treasure nearby? But some readers will love Wolk's use of language even more than the puzzles. Crow says her skin is "the same color Osh [makes] by mixing purple and yellow, blue and orange, red and green." (The race of the characters isn't always identified, but Osh says, "I came a long, long way to be here," and his native language and accent make him sound "different from everyone else.") The pacing of the book isn't always as suspenseful as it should be. There are a few lulls, which the author tries to fill with heavy foreshadowing. But the mysteries--and the words that describe them--are compelling enough to send readers to the islands for years to come. A beautiful, evocative sophomore effort from Newbery honoree Wolk (Wolf Hollow, 2016). (Historical fiction. 9-13)

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May 1, 2017

Gr 5-8-The definition of family and one young girl's struggle to find out who she really is take center stage in Wolk's follow-up to her Newbery Honor book, Wolf Hollow. As long as she can remember, Crow has lived her whole life on the sleepy island of Cuttyhunk, part of the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts. When she was a baby, only days old, a lonely fisherman named Osh found her moored on the rocks after being set adrift in a shabby rowboat. The only place Crow could have safely come from and still survived the boat trip is the neighboring island of Penikese, whose sole occupants were the patients and staff of a leper colony. Many of the townspeople avoid Crow like the plague, assuming that she carries the disease despite exhibiting no physical symptoms. Even though Crow is loved by her adoptive father and their kind and helpful neighbor Miss Maggie, she is determined to discover where she comes from and (hopefully) locate her birth family. Wolk's writing is lyrical and heartrending. Her impeccable research of the area during the 1920s (described in a lengthy author's note) is on full display. Crow, Osh, and Miss Maggie are fully fleshed-out characters who jump off the page. Wolk strikingly conveys the intense feelings of hope and anxiety Crow and Osh experience, respectively, as Crow sets out to track down her birth family. This is a tear-jerking yet ultimately uplifting tale of establishing one's place in the world and realizing that sometimes your family is the one you make, not the one you are born into. VERDICT A stellar story full of heart, action, and emotion that will make readers feel like they are a part of Crow's family.-Christopher Lassen, BookOps: The New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2017
Grades 4-7 *Starred Review* Crow was a mere baby when she drifted to the shore of one of the Elizabeth Islands off the coast of Massachusetts in the first quarter of the twentieth century. She has since grown up with the painter Osh as her stand-in father; their only other friend is Maggie, who teaches Crow. Nearby Penikese Island was home to a leper colony at the time of Crow's birth, and most of the island folk assume her birth parents were lepers and shun her. Now a 12-year-old and uncertain of her parentage, Crow becomes increasingly curious following a fire on the now supposedly vacant Penikese. Where did she really come from? What happened to her parents, and is there a chance she has any surviving blood relatives? Crow's quest for answers as she grapples with her uncertain identity shapes the 2017 Newbery Honor Book author's sophomore novel. While this quiet, affecting story lacks the palpable sense of dread and superb pacing that made Wolf Hollow (2016) so impossible to put down, there's still plenty to admire in this more classic-feeling historical novel, which calls to mind Natalie Babbitt's The Eyes of the Amaryllis (1977). Wolk has a keen sense for the seaside landscape, skillfully mining the terror the ocean can unleash as a furious nor'easter heightens tension in the novel's climax. Historical fiction fans awaiting her follow-up will be pleased.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

June 26, 2017
Several central characters populate Wolk’s New England coming-of-age novel. The protagonist, Crow, at 12, has begun asking questions about her past as an abandoned baby—questions that neither her taciturn foster father, Osh, nor their matter-of-fact neighbor Miss Maggie are equipped to answer. As the story unfolds, the three characters venture forth from their tiny island off Cape Cod to discover the truth about Crow’s lost family, encountering unexpected dangers along the way. Marie is a sensitive narrator whose characterizations are unique and often power-
ful. She excels at playing Osh, who speaks little but communicates much, ensuring his deep love for Crow shines through in his brief and sometimes stern dialogue. Marie also provides interesting performances for the loyal Miss Maggie and several island residents, as well as for the villain of the piece: a cold-blooded treasure hunter who is determined to unearth the secrets of Crow’s past before she does. Marie handles the challenge of three leading characters with ease, keeping listeners captivated throughout. Ages 10–up. A Dutton hardcover.

July 1, 2017
Crow lives on a tiny island in the Elizabeth Islands off Cape Cod with her adoptive father, Osh. He and Miss Maggie, who lives on nearby Cuttyhunk, are her only companions, as other locals shun her. But Crow wasn't born on Osh's island; she washed ashore there twelve years earlier in 1913, a newborn baby alone in a skiff. She has always wondered about her origins, but not until she sees a fire ablaze on Penikese, an uninhabited island that once housed a leper colony, does an overwhelming tide of curiosity about her origins rise within her. Who were her birth parents? Why did they send her away? Were they lepers? What did they name her? She doesn't expect her questions to lead her and those she loves into the fearful danger that ensues. Wolk writes of her characters with the same precise, poetic nuance with which she describes Crow's beloved island and the lyrics of the sea. Here, place forms character, just as human relationships do, and while Crow's adventures are a dramatic mix of buried treasure, deadly storms, and murderous pursuit, the heart of this story is the precisely observed, quietly realized evocation of clamming and lobstering and gardening; of the love and self-knowledge that come through mutual care. This is an exceptional mix of historical fiction, physical adventure, and interiority, a novel in which suspense, insight, and the natural world play equal, vital parts. An author's note provides more information about the history of these Massachusetts islands and the 1905-1921 Penikese leper hospital. deirdre f. baker

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2017
Crow washed ashore on a tiny Massachusetts island as a baby. A fire on another uninhabited island that once housed a leper colony raises her curiosity about her origins, which leads to fearful danger. An exceptional mix of historical fiction, physical adventure, and interiority; suspense, insight, and the natural world play equal parts. An author's note provides historical background.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)