68 pages • 2 hours read
Patricia Reilly GiffPictures Of Hollis Woods
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaChapter 2-Fourth PictureChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Time with Josie”
The chapter opens on a morning when Hollis has been living with Josie for three weeks. She is enjoying cutting wood for Josie’s art and for fires when winter comes. She goes downstairs and while Josie silently works on her whittling, Hollis looks around the brightly-colored house, which has pictures Josie has painted all over the walls. Hollis has been trying to draw the house and, in her head,, Steven has been reminding her how sad it is she doesn’t have the colored pencils the Regans gave her.
Though it’s Monday and Hollis should go to school, Josie proposes they go somewhere in the Silver Bullet, Josie’s old Buick. Hollis isn’t worried because she’s gotten good at forging notes for her teachers when she skips school. Josie drives a little too fast and promises to teach Hollis to drive one day, which Hollis thinks would have made the car-loving Steven crazy but tries not to remember him.
Josie takes Hollis out to the Atlantic, calling it “my ocean” (23). She and Hollis have a conversation about how they both love water, but Hollis prefers rivers. They explore, smelling the ocean’s scent and looking at the fish. Hollis wonders whether there is snow on the mountain in Branches and “put my hand on my chest because there was such an ache inside” (24). At this, she turns to Josie and says she wants to stay with her, and Josie smiles, replying that she’s already started working on Hollis’s tree statue.
Third Picture Summary: “Fishing in the Delaware River”
Hollis remembers drawing the river, which is right next to the Regans’s house in Branches. She also remembers the mountain on the other side of the house. Steven asks her if she knows how to fish, which she doesn’t. Izzy comes out of the house and asks them to catch something for dinner. The Old Man gives Hollis the best fishing rod and shows her how to use it.
As Hollis looks out over the river toward the mountain, Steven suggests they climb it. The Old Man says the road is dangerous but Steven asserts, “I’m not afraid of anything” (29). The river starts to feel like home to Hollis. She catches a big fish and slips into the water, but Steven pulls her up by the elbow and helps her net the fish. Then, he pours water over her as a joke. The Old Man and Izzy are proud, and Hollis remembers fondly what it was like to eat fish together that night. After recounting the memory, she asks as the narrator, “Why did I have to mess everything up?” (29).
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Time with Josie”
Hollis is continuing to enjoy life with Josie, though she is starting to worry about money because on the days Josie gets paychecks, they just buy a lot of junk food. She has also begun to realize that, even though no one at the foster agency is aware, Josie is starting to have dementia and can’t always remember everything clearly.
One night, Josie announces they are going to the movies. She pulls out a brown hat with a veil and puts it on Hollis’s head, making her look at herself in the mirror. Hollis usually avoids her reflection because she can still see a mark from the car crash on the mountain, but with the hat on, Hollis finds she looks beautiful. Josie gives Hollis the hat to keep. As they pass the car on their walk out of the house, Hollis notices the gas gauge is low. Hollis has her own “running money” (33), but she doesn’t tell Josie about it because “It couldn’t be used for gas or food, just running. I had made that bargain with myself long ago” (33).
The two arrive at the local movie theatre on foot. Josie introduces Hollis to her cousin and best friend, Beatrice, who runs the theatre and lives above it; Beatrice gives them free admission, which Josie and Hollis earn by selling popcorn at the concessions stand. After the movie, they walk home, and Josie gets excited for the upcoming Christmas holiday and all the decorations she has stored in the attic. Josie does a spin, and Hollis “had that strange feeling again. Everyone was home doing homework for school tomorrow, and I was watching an old lady dance in the street” (36). It makes Hollis wistful about the loss of a traditional family, but she does like Josie and tries not to think about it.
Fourth Picture Summary: “The Old Man’s Mountain”
Hollis remembers drawing the mountain near the house in Branches while Steven worked on the Old Man’s truck. She reflects that “Half the arguments in that house had to do with Steven’s wanting to drive the truck” (37). In the memory, Hollis is using a drawing set the Old Man gave her, which is the best gift she’s ever received, though she felt too shy to articulate this to him. She plans to give the Old Man her drawing of the mountain as a gift.
She and Steven get up and start following the road up the mountain, while Steven points out animal tracks. Hollis can see why the Old Man is afraid of this dangerous road. She asks if they’re going to the top, and Steven says no because “Pop would have a fit” (39). They stop at a point where they can see the house and Izzy in the garden. Hollis wonders to herself why the Old Man believes she’s a good person, she and remembers all the previous foster parents who told her she was trouble. Just when she worries that Steven might be upset that his father likes her, Steven slips her the larger half of a chocolate bar he’s eating. Hollis thinks of her “W” picture with the family, she but tries to put it out of her mind immediately.
Chapter 2-Fourth Picture Analysis
Hollis is starting to seem more self-sufficient. We learn about her running money for the first time, and she has a pang of guilt about not being in school, though she has previously been someone who loved to play hooky. What initially seemed like irresponsible or impulsive habits now begins to seem like Hollis’s best attempts to care for herself in bad situations. Hollis is also starting to transition into being Josie’s caretaker as she realizes Josie has mild dementia. In Chapter 2, she is delighted by the childish breakfast of chocolate chips and a Danish, but by Chapter 3, Hollis is worrying that all the money goes to junk food and noticing there’s no gas in the car. Coupled with Hollis seeing herself looking older in the mirror for the first time, she is growing up and taking on responsibility; her opinion of herself seems to be changing.
Two key aspects of Steven’s character appear in these sections. Though he is always teasing Hollis, it becomes clear that his deeper motivation is to support her. He might pour a bucket of water on her head while they fish, but he does so immediately after pulling her out of the river when she’s about to fall in; later on, he sneaks her the larger half of his candy bar. Hollis begins to gain confidence that he is genuinely brotherly. The second character trait established here is Steven’s increasing clashes with the Old Man. His eventual car accident is foreshadowed by Hollis’s note that the two particularly argue about Steven’s desire to drive the truck, and by the fact that Hollis and Steven only hike halfway up the mountain because of how mad it would make the Old Man.
Everything good that happens in these chapters makes Hollis remember bad things. Josie eccentrically dances in the street, and it makes Hollis pine for the more traditional family the Regans offered; she grows closer to the Old Man but worries this will anger Steven. It is very difficult for her to trust that anything will change from her past as a troublesome foster child. The startling end to the Third Picture underscores this: she recalls an idyllic scene fishing with the family, and then asks, “Why did I have to mess everything up?” (29).
