Echo Mountain

Echo Mountain

Juvenile Fiction
"We spent our first spring on Echo Mountain damp and dirty and
tired, as hungry as the animals that crept from their burrows after
months of winter fasting.
Building a cabin was our work, our play, our church and school.
The other families helped us with the hardest parts, just as we helped
them, but most of it we did ourselves, and so slowly that at times I
thought we never again would have a roof over our heads."
Lauren Wolf sure does have a talent for bringing readers not
only back in time, but towards the rurality that was much more
prevalent then than now. Recall in Wolf Hollow she took us to a small
town in the middle of World War II? Her characters in Echo Mountain
have gone even further from civilization.
Before the Depression Ellie, her music teacher mother, her
tailor father, and her sister and brother had lived in a small town.
When both parents lost their jobs the family was unable to keep their
home. While other destitute people have doubled up with kin or ridden
the rails seeking any kind of job, they have moved to a nearby
mountain to rebuild their lives literally from scratch.
It's a very challenging existence. Basic homes are built from
what's on hand, lacking amenities we take for granted like electricity
and indoor plumbing. Wood is used for heat and cooking. Food is
grown, obtained from animals, or bartered for with neighbors.
Medicine is concocted from natural ingredients, some of which aren't
easy to obtain. Doctors are only summoned in the direst of
emergencies. Preditors prowl the mountain at night.
Ellie and her family have an additional challenge to cope with.
Months ago her dad had been chopping down trees to clear land to
expand their vegetable garden. A tree had fallen on him, knocking him
unconscious. A neighbor had been sent to fetch a doctor.
"'Then 'Coma,' he said. Which wasn't a word we knew. 'He might
wake up tomorrow or never again. Can't tell if he'll be all right.
Can't tell much of anything except he's hurt and his body has decided
that rest is what he needs most. So rest is what he'll have, until he
either gets better or doesn't."
Ellie makes efforts to revive her father even though she gets in
trouble each time. She's sure there is some way to reach him. Maybe
the Hag, an older woman reputed to have healing powers who lives alone
at the top of the mountain, will have some ideas.
Ellie's been strictly forbidden to go any higher on the mountain
than her family's homestead. There are very real perils in those
untamed forests.
But this is her beloved father. She can't just let him die.
On a purrrsonal note, I had a really awesome weekend. The weather was
purrrfect, sunny and breezy. Eugene and I took our road trip on
Saturday. We found a lot of yard sales and got some bargains. I
finally have a carrier for Tobago that isn't cardboard. I won't have
to worry about it breaking when I'm walking down Route 2. I got some
almost new sneakers for a quarter. And lots of other good stuff. We
got Subway and had a picnic lunch beside a lake. There were some
ducks strutting around. It was clear that they owned the place. When
we got back there was time for me to take the bus to Orono to drop off
books and pick up new ones. Sunday Tobago and I went to zoom church.
I just got back from a trip to Orono and you won't believe what I just
saw. I took pictures that I'll share...next post. (Jules)
We heard the bell choir. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene and to the Orono librarians.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



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